The Slayer, The Avatar And The Guardian Of Light
by TheGuardianOfLight
Summary: HP,Buffy Xover: A Slayer meets a cloaked stranger with a destiny and birthright even greater than her own, while in another dimension a boy lays dying in his room. What happens when their worlds get thrown together and enter a war as old as time.
1. CH1 The Guardian?

**The Slayer, The Avatar And The Guardian Of Light**

**AKA: The Slayer, The Guardian And The Boy Who Lived**

TITLE: The Slayer, The Avatar And The Guardian Of Light.

AUTHOR: GuardianOfLight.

BETAS: Quite a few, they keep changing

EMAIL: BtVS, Harry Potter and Original.

DISCLAIMER: BtVS belongs to Joss Whedon; Harry Potter belongs to J K Rowling and I own this particular plot and anything Guardian related as I invented him (More information about The Guardian will be available on my website, if I ever get it uploaded).

PAIRINGS: Harry/Fleur, Ron/Hermione, Draco/Ginny

RATING: NC-17 to be on the safe side, mild language, violence, vivid descriptions, a couple of adult scenes, gore and quite a bit of blood in certain chapters.

WARNING: Attempted rape in one chapter, child abuse, torture, sex.

This fic is not based around any of the previous warnings but contains them all in small amounts, safe for general consumption...as long as you are of legal age to read it (grins).

CATEGORY: Romance and adventure.

TIME PERIOD: Buffy – Mid Season 5, Harry Potter – Pre book 6.

SUMMARY: A Slayer meets a cloaked stranger who has a destiny and birthright even greater than her own, while in another dimension a 15 year old boy lays dying in his room. What happens when their worlds get thrown together and they enter a war as old as time?

NOTES: I have been working on this for literally years so please please PLEASE review. I need reassurance that I did not waste every night for the last year for nothing.

NO OFFENCE: This is just for fun, it is not meant to insult or offend and I apologise if it does.

SEQUELS: This is part one of a longer story that I started thinking up when I was ten which was a long ten years ago, the next instalment if I choose to right it will involve a LOTR crossover. This story will be stand alone but can also be read along with the other instalments once I have written them.

* * *

**The Slayer, The Avatar And The Guardian Of Light**

**AKA: The Slayer, The Guardian And The Boy Who Lived**

**BOOK1 – The Gathering**

Chapter 1 – Guardian?

_The battle rages, the cry's of the fallen fill the air._

_The enemy is being forced back, victory is within our grasp._

_Yet in this victory defeat looms closer._

_Will ending this war decide the fate of another?_

_Will my death be like the grains of sand that tip the scales in the enemies favour?_

_The War of Wizards is almost over._

_The War of Good and Evil is yet to be decided._

_Is this how my end will be, a corpse on a battlefield?_

_A murderer condemned for all time, this will be my fate._

_Most would fear death but I...I welcome it._

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:20__th__ July 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – England – Surrey_

_Location:Pivet Drive – Little Whinging_

_Time:Afternoon_

On the second of July 2001, in a dimension not too dissimilar to are own, in the western spiral arm of a galaxy, a planet hung in orbit around a young yellow sun.

In the northern hemisphere, in the country known as England, in the town of Little Whinging, Surrey a car was driving along a street.

In the back sat a skinny boy, no more than fifteen years of age, he was staring out the window but wasn't really seeing anything as he thought about the loss he had just suffered.

* * *

_Dimension:165 – Earth_

_Date:2__nd __July 2001 AD_

_Country:USA – California_

_Location:Sunnydale – Graveyard_

_Time:Evening_

In another dimension, in the country known as the United States, in the town of Sunnydale in the state of California, a young lady was walking through a graveyard.

It was late, about twelve o'clock at night on a clear night and the wind was cold and dark creatures were on the prowl.

* * *

It was a fairly ordinary night for Buffy; she was going through the usual cycle; dinner, patrol, stake a few vampires, home sleep, the usual. 

There was only one thing missing.

She wasn't staking any vampires, in fact she hadn't seen a single vampire all night or for the past two nights, and that was always a bad thing.

Since she had found that Dagon Sphere several days earlier nothing had happened, absolutely nothing, and that was a guarantee that something was coming, something bad.

But that was not what was worrying Buffy at that moment.

The most pressing thing that was bothering her was boredom.

She was so bored that she has resorted to talking to herself.

"Come on, something attack me. I'm bored out of my skull here."

_Come on, give me something demonic, the guys have found a whole lot of nothing about 'that which can not be named' and I need something to pummel my frustrations out on, and I am fed up with beating Spike._

"Oh come someone….Anyone….One measly vampire, that's all I want, just the one, I don't mind if you're a bit scrawny."

"Ask and you shall receive Slayer." a voice behind her growled.

Sighing in relief she whipped around drawing 'Mr Pointy' and bringing it up to strike, only to stop dead when she saw that she was now being confronted by five vampires and a fairly large demon.

"Okay….watch what you wish for Buffy." she said nervously to herself.

"You should Slayer; you never know what might turn up. Get her."

The vampires charged at her all at once.

She sent a couple of kicks at the vampires, sending a couple of them flying, before spinning and dusting two of their companions giving her a chance to run, she needed more open ground to manoeuvre around the demon.

"After her!" cried the demon.

She could hear them following her as she ran, after about twenty meters; she was cut of by five other vampires who had lying in wait.

Turning she saw the remaining three vampires and the demon come around the corner to surround her.

"Ok, this could be awkward.

Springing into the fray she attacked the nearest group of vampires that blocked her path, she caught three of them with kicks and managed to stake a forth. But before she got the chance to attack the next she was hit in the chest by a foot sending her to the ground against a nearby tombstone, rolling she plunged her stake into the vampire above her but rolling backwards and away but as she went to get up four more grabbed her and held her down, she struggled but they were too strong.

There was no way out and the demon was closing in.

"Time to die, Slayer."

The demon dropped to his knees beside her, taking Buffy's head in his clawed hands.

She struggled, attempting to break free from the vampire's grasps but now all the remaining blood suckers were restraining her, she couldn't shake them off.

She felt the demon start to twist only to have its hands ripped away from her.

Twisting her neck, she was in time to see the demon's body drop to the ground.

By the sounds the vampires were making, it didn't sound like they were expecting this either.

Before anyone could react something brushed past two of the vampire restraining her left leg, dusting them instantly, she didn't even see the injury that killed them.

Taking advantage of her free limb she kicked at the two holding her other leg down before giving her arms a yank, pulling the vampires off balance just long enough for her to pull herself free. Leaping to her feet she moved into a fighting stance only to be utterly confused by the sight that greeted her.

There was utter chaos; vampires were running in every direction, others had obviously appeared since she had been pinned down.

She watched as a very fast black shape moved around them, swinging what appeared to be a long blade of some sort. Every time a vampire tried to run the shape would move past it, there would be a flash of a blade and the vampire would be dusted.

The vampires were terrified shouting out, warnings and other things that made no sense.

"Ambush!"

"Trap!"

"Guardian!"

"What the hell?" Buffy exclaimed as she continued to watch the unfolding, entirely one sided, battle, twice she tried to attack a vampire only to have it be dusted before she reached it.

As the last of the vampires turned to dust Buffy looked at the shape that had just stopped in the centre of the dust covered grass.

It appeared to be a cloaked figure of some sorts but before she could analyse it anymore, it moved away quickly.

"Hey, wait!" She called, running after the creature.

Turning around the corner of a tomb she looked out over the wide open area expanse of the graveyard.

There was nothing to see but tomb stones.

Sighing, she turned and walked off annoyed, that had been a really good battle that she had barely been apart of it, not to mention she had been saved by someone but she did not know who.

As soon as she had gone, an unnatural shadow moved out from behind a tombstone and then vanished as if it had never been.

* * *

_Dimension:165 – Earth_

_Date:3__rd __July 2001 AD_

_Country:USA – California_

_Location:Sunnydale – Giles House_

_Time:Morning_

The next morning Buffy, Giles, Willow, Xander, Anya and Tara were all gathered at Giles house listening to Buffy tell them of her adventures the night before.

"And you say he seemed to disappear into thin air?" Giles questioned.

"Yeah, I checked. I felt that there was something there, but there was no one around."

"No one that you could see." corrected Anya.

"You mean who ever that person was can also turn themselves invisible," said Buffy doubtfully.

"Either that or they were even faster than you thought." Added Anya.

"How else do you explain it?" nodded Xander, turning to Giles "Can demons do that, turn themselves invisible I mean?"

"It's possible," Giles stated, cleaning his glasses. "But I've never heard of one that could move at that speed though. It's probably very powerful. I suggest we do some research and we all go out on patrol tonight."

"Do you really think it's that serious?" Buffy asked.

"Buffy, just because it attacked the vampires and not you doesn't mean it's on our side. It might just want to kill you itself, or maybe it wants to lure us into a false sense of security and befriend you before killing you, and I'll point out that according to you it took out a demon and an awful lot of vampires in a matter of seconds."

"Oh wait a minute there." Buffy paused standing up "Something one of the vampires said as it ran off...it said, it said…GUARDIAN," Buffy almost shouted, looking smug that she remembered.

"Guardian?"

"Guardian of what?" questioned Willow.

"I don't know…it could be any number of things, which would explain why it's so powerful," Giles explained.

"Why would that explain it?" Tara questioned quietly.

"Well, if you're going to guard something, you want a powerful demon or being to do it," he replied.

"Could it be that Nameless thing, the thing the Dagon sphere was created for?" Buffy questioned.

"I doubt it," Giles answered.

"Why?" Xander asked. "It makes sense if this thing really is that powerful, you got to be able to get rid of it somehow."

"Yes, but it's not nameless, you already said," he added, turning to Buffy. "It's called the Guardian."

"Oh," Buffy said, a bit deflated.

"And if we are lucky, this may not be as bad as it seemed before," added Giles "As its guarding something it's more likely to have been defending something last night rather than attacking, but we can not take that for certain."

"Right, so research," Xander asked before pausing. "I can't believe I just suggested that."

* * *

_Dimension:165 – Earth_

_Date:3__rd__ July 2001 AD_

_Country:USA – California_

_Location:Sunnydale – Graveyard_

_Time:Early Evening_

"Come on, Giles. Nothings coming. There is no point in just walking around." Sighed Buffy "Are you sure you didn't find anything in the books? We could go back and look because I am dying of boredom here."

"Sorry, Buffy," said Willow. "No mention of any Guardian that uses a blade and moves at that speed."

"Or turn themselves invisible," Xander chimed in.

Buffy was about to reply when she stopped dead, listening intently.

"What is it, Buffy?" questioned Willow.

"Shhh," she hissed.

She was listening carefully. Her spidey senses were almost off the scale. She heard a noise to their right. Turning, she saw at least two dozen vampires jumping out from various hiding places surrounding them on three sides while five very large demons rose to their left and began to advance.

Where on earth had that many vampires come from.

"You may have escaped last time Slayer, but not again", one of the demons growled.

The demon gestured at the Scoobies signalling all the vampires to attack.

They sprang at the Scoobies, striking at them in pairs, attempted to split them up. If the Scoobies had not been such good fighters by now they would have been divided in seconds, they managed to stay together in groups of two; Xander and Anya, Willow and Tara (using magic), and then Giles and Buffy (although Buffy did most of the work), forcing the vampires to try harder, but that didn't alter the fact that they were seriously outnumbered.

Buffy was on vampire number seven when she heard a cry of pain. She turned to see Tara lying against a crypt with a large blood stain on her shirt and Willow leaning over her. Giles had moved in front of them to cover them, while Xander and Anya moved Tara and Willow out of the way, but with their numbers reduced they started to get forced back until they were pinned up against a crypt and surrounded by their surviving enemies.

Thirteen vampires remained as well as the five demons who had yet to enter the fight. It was just as well, as even Buffy would have had trouble taking them down. She was as out of the corner of her eye Willow and Tara began levitating stakes out of their equipment bag and began magically throwing them in circles around the group, taking them straight through the vampires, dusting many.

Things were beginning to look up when Buffy heard Willow cry out as the stakes the witches had been levitating dropped out of the air.

"Tara, TARA," she said as the redhead tried to make her girlfriend regain consciousness, while the others continued to battle the remaining vampires around them.

Giles cried out as a vampire, manoeuvred his sword out of his hand and slashed at his arm, cutting deep, forcing him to use his one remaining arm to stake him, dusting the last vampire.

"Time's up, Slayer," announced the first demon as it and its companions walked towards the group, closing in for the kill.

As the demons entered striking distance there was a flash of movement and something moved past them, one of the demons crumbling under the assault.

Everyone spun around, trying to find out where the attacker had vanished to.

"Guardian." the first demon growled, with a large amount of loathing.

Upon hearing this, the remaining three demons tried to run, but something prevented them from doing so, they started falling to the ground and getting thrown around the gravestones, as the black shape zoomed by them.

In a matter of ten seconds, only the lead demon was left.

"Show yourself Guardian," the demon growled with contempt "Unless you are too afraid to fight me face to face."

The shape moved to stand opposite the demon before stopping, the shape of a cloaked figure being revelled.

He or she, or possibly it was about six-foot tall and wearing a black cloak, positioned immediately before the demon and between it and the Scoobies, who were more confused than ever.

Buffy could feel magic flowing from the figure, whatever this thing was, it was dangerous.

The demon leaped at the figure, but missed as the figure effortlessly stepped aside, making the movement look so smooth that it seemed more like a glide. He had moved so fast that you could almost see two of him.

"What is it, Guardian...Afraid to I will defeat you?"

The figure reached into his cloak and gracefully withdrew a stylized curved five foot sword which almost appeared to glow with purity (if something can glow with purity). You could almost feel the magic radiating from the blade. If they had been able to look closer the Scoobies would have seen runes on the surface of the blade. They were moving, swirling and changing shape. By looking at them, you could just tell that if somehow words had power, these would be deadly in the wrong hands.

The question was whether they were in the wrong hands now.

The figure assumed a relaxed posture despite the fact that there was a seven foot demon in front of it. This time, when the demon pounced, the figure again casually stepped aside, but brought the sword up at move human speeds in away that only a master could and severed the demon's arm.

The demon howled in pain and turned to attack again, but the figure replaced the sword in its cloak, presumably in a sheath, though it didn't show through the cloak.

The demon lunged again only to be grabbed by the figure swung around and thrown over the group's heads to fall unconscious against another crypt.

The figure then turned to face the Scoobies and though it was hard to tell due to the cloak but he seemed to bow his head to the group (either that or he was seeing if his shoelaces were untied).

"Who...what are you?" Giles questioned uncertainly.

The figure then reached into its cloak and withdrew a dagger about forty centimetres long, also covering in runes. He raised it by the blade and threw it at the them.

"Willow, duck!!"

Willow who had stood about five seconds previously, while Giles looked after Tara, shrieked and threw herself to the ground. The dagger missing her by inches.

"All of you run! Get out of here." Buffy yelled as she leapt at the figure, hoping to distract him while the others made an escape.

Buffy started punching and kicking with all her might, but not a single blow connected due to the sheer speed of the figure.

He performed movements that shouldn't have been physically possible for anybody, even a Slayer. Anyone watching carefully would notice that the figure never even attempted to hit Buffy and just continued to dodge.

Buffy eventually gave up, yelled in anger and in a desperate attempt, threw herself at the figure who calmly raised a hand towards Buffy.

In a voice that would have made most women melt, the figure said simply:

"Stop"

Buffy did just that, hanging in mid air.

"Hey, put me down. That's cheating," said Buffy, struggling to wriggle her way free, even though technically nothing was restraining her.

The figure gently lowered his hand so that Buffy moved backwards towards the gang and then very gently touched down.

"Buffy, are you all right?" Giles questioned.

"You're very aggressive, aren't you," said the figure sarcastically.

"Well I tend to be when people attack my friends."

"I didn't attack any of you. You attacked me." although the voice was peaceful, it felt ominous coming from under that hood.

"Oh yeah, so what about that dagger which you threw at..." Buffy was interrupted by a yelp from Willow as she turned to find herself face to face with the demon who had been thrown over their heads.

He was now pinned to the wall of the crypt they had been pushed up against by the dagger which had been thrown so hard it penetrated the stone.

"See."

"Well, you did throw it at me anyway," Willow said, still recovering from the shock.

"It wouldn't have hit you. I knew you would have moved out the way, and even if you hadn't, it would have passed straight through you…like this," the figure said, raising his hand, summoning the dagger it passed straight through Willows stomach into the figure's waiting hand.

"Oh," Willow said a bit uncertainly, feeling her stomach, which was completely intact.

"Could you pull your hood back? It's giving me the heebie jeebies," Anya stated.

"Anya," Xander whispered, moving in front of her so the figure couldn't see. "You don't tell cloaked figures who have just defeated several demons and a Slayer, can move extremely fast and can make objects pass through people that they give you the heebie jeebies."

Xander then directed one of his nervous smiles at the figure.

"It's all right," the figure nodded before raising his hands and lowering his hood.


	2. CH2 The Book Of The Ultimate Warrior

Chapter 2 – The Book Of The Ultimate Warrior

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:20__th__ July 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – England – Surrey_

_Location:Pivet Drive – Little Whinging_

_Time:Afternoon_

As the car pulled to a stop the large man who had been driving left the car, unlocked the car boot then proceeded inside the house, immediately to be followed by the equally large boy and the scrawny woman, all of whom walked straight into the house.

The scrawny boy slowly undid his seatbelt and opened the car door, lifting out the cage that contained his only companion he pushed the door closed before collecting his trunk and heading towards the house.

"BOY. GET IN HERE!"

* * *

_Dimension:165 – Earth_

_Date:3__rd __July 2001 AD_

_Country:USA – California_

_Location:Sunnydale – Graveyard_

_Time:Early Evening_

"It's all right," the figure nodded before raising his hands and lowering his hood.

Underneath was a male, around nineteen to twenty years of age, he was six foot tall, had dark brown hair and hazel coloured eyes.

It was the sort of face you would trust, even though it looked powerful, determined and wise beyond its years.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am The Guardian."

All the girl's chins except for Tara's, who was still unconscious, hit the floor and were now heading at full speed for Asia.

_Wow _was the main line of thought.

The men in the party were looking at him cautiously, and had the situation been less serious Giles probably would have been rolling his eyes and cleaning his glasses at the women's reaction.

After about a minute of silence, someone finally managed to say something.

"Hi," Willow greeted him shyly with one of her nervous waves.

The corners of the Guardian's mouth turned upwards in amusement.

"Hello, Miss Rosenberg."

Snapping out of the shocked state they were all in, they realized that they hadn't introduced themselves to him, yet he already knew who Willow was.

"How do you know her name?" questioned Giles, moving away from Tara to stand in front of Willow, just in case.

"Oh, I know who you all are, Mr. Giles, even though we have never met."

"Why do you know our names?" Xander asked.

A cry of pain brought their attention back to Tara who had just regained consciousness. Remembering her injured lover, Willow went back to her like a shot. "We need to get her to a hospital. She's bleeding badly!"

The Guardian moved towards her, but Buffy and the others blocked his path.

"I'm not going to hurt her. Move aside."

Slowly Anya and Giles moved out the way, Buffy and Xander held firm. The Guardian sighed and raised a hand lifting both of the floor, rendering them immobile, this seemed to annoy the pair.

"Hey, stop cheating." Called Buffy as she struggled again.

The Guardian knelt down besides Tara. He placed his fingertips on her head and muttered some words that were not English or any other language that the assembled group knew.

She immediately calmed and the pain vanished from her face, The Guardian then moved his hand down over her chest wound, which was still loosing her blood.

"This may feel a little strange," he told Tara who was now staring at him shocked.

His hand began to glow white and he closed his eyes in confrontation.

The light spread down his hand towards the wound, it engulfed the injury, Tara made a small gasp as the light brightened so much that they could not see the injury beneath it.

When the light died down, the wound was no where to be seen.

"You're going to be just fine," he said, stroking the side of her head soothingly before standing back.

As soon as he moved out of the way Willow threw herself at Tara, engulfed her in a hug.

After about a minute of stunned silence by everyone Willow stood and threw herself at the Guardian.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you." Willow cried into his chest, he in return placed his arms around her to try to soothe the emotional woman.

"My pleasure." He replied, untangling himself from Willow. "I suggest we move this conversation back to Mr. Giles house. There are bound to be more vampires around."

"I concur and then you can tell us who exactly you are," Giles stated rather than asked.

"I intend to."

"Could I ask you to do one thing first." Said Xander calmly.

"Of course." Replied The Guardian.

"Could you let us down?"

* * *

_Dimension:165 – Earth_

_Date:3__rd __July 2001 AD_

_Country:USA – California_

_Location:Sunnydale – Giles House_

_Time:Early Evening_

Once they were back at Giles' house the Scoobies settled in to hear what The Guardian had to say.

Willow, Tara and Anya took relaxed postures, sitting on one of the sofas, while Buffy, Xander and Giles remained standing, still holding their weapons.

"So...who are you?" asked Xander.

"Like I said, I am The Guardian."

"G...Guardian of w...what?" Tara stuttered, she had been rather unsettled after her near death experience.

"Everything."

Everyone was stunned into silence.

"What do you mean everything?" Willow questioned.

"Everything." he repeated.

"You said, but what do you mean…..everything?" asked Xander.

"I'm not sure I can make it any clearer," he replied, the corners of his mouth pulling up slightly again "How about the opposite of nothing."

"Could you please define what you believe to be 'everything'?" Giles asked, cleaning his glasses.

"I would define it the same way you do, everything….the world, the plants, the people, the animals, you." He paused, but still receiving blank looks he continued "I'm the Guardian of trees, flowers, people, birds, bees, bears, bats, mongooses, ducks, dogs, frogs, fruit bats, flamingos, France. You name it; I guard it, though the last is a bit of a stretch."

"Why, France to big for ya?" Xander asked, making it sound light a insult.

"No, I just have good reason for not liking the French."

"Oh." Nodded Xander quietly.

The corners of the stranger's mouth twitched again, before he continued.

"Well while you're all stunned into silence I might as well tell you why I am here, as I am guessing you are going to ask…I originally came to America in 1981 when Buffy was born."

"What...why?" Buffy exclaimed.

"Because I knew you would be important in times to come, as you all will."

He stopped for a minute to let the others take this information in, studying their reactions as he did. Most looked worried by what they had just heard. Giles was cleaning his glasses again. Anya though looked very smug at this.

"I have been watching you…all of you since you were born and I've made sure nothing has harmed you."

"Well you failed there then," Buffy interrupted. "I've died."

"I am aware of that," he answered. "I am aware of precisely how time should unfold, or to be more precise, I can see when discrepancies occur...like tonight...Those vampires and demons shouldn't have attacked, it was planned by greater forces and should not have occurred the way it did. You are not the only ones to have been attacked, I have been chasing that group through half a dozen dimensions in which they managed to kill many Champions, luckily the size of the force had already been reduced from five times that number by the Champions they had already defeated."

He then looked away and spoke to himself though loud enough for the others to hear.

"I should have been more prepared...He has acted faster than I anticipated."

"Excuse me, who?" questioned Buffy

"The First," he said coldly. "You've met him before or at least some of you have." he said looking in Buffy's direction.

He then withdrew a gold pocket watch from the inside of his cloak, snapping it open he checked the time before replaced it in his cloak.

"I have explained enough for the time being. I know you all have questions and I will answer, just not now."

He then withdrew a very large book from his cloak, a book that should have been visible through his cloak, especially for a book that looked that heavy, though he handled it like a feather. On the front was an embroidering of a Stag. A crown and five stars surrounded the top of the deer's antlers. There were words written on the spine and top of the book. They spelt out:

_Pron Tirno Daram_

None of the assembled group knew what they meant.

"This book will answer some of your questions. I cannot stress enough how dangerous this book is, so do not lose it."

He gently placed the book on the table and turned to go.

"Oh and the pages that you can't read," he said over his shoulder. "Don't try to translate them, you won't be able to."

Having said this he seemed to glide towards the door but faded before he got there. The group just looked at each other a bit shocked.

Xander was the first to speak, "He's got to show me how to do that."

* * *

_Dimension:165 – Earth_

_Date:3__rd __July 2001 AD_

_Country:USA – California_

_Location:Sunnydale – Giles' House_

_Time:Late Evening_

Later at Giles' house, Giles, Willow, Xander, Anya and Tara are present.

"What have you got, Will?" Buffy asked as she came in the front door.

"Thanks for knocking," said Giles.

Not even hearing him Buffy continued into the house.

"Quite a lot. His full title…or one of them anyway, is The Guardian Of Light. This guy's really impressive Buffy. He's incredible. The stuff he's done, it's unbelievable and he's even more powerful than...than...something really powerful."

"Hell of anti-climax, Will." smiled Xander.

"Well, she might not have said it very well, but she's not wrong," said Giles, looking up from reading the book over Willow's shoulder. "From what this book says, he's been around a long, long time."

"Yeah, well," Buffy retorted. "Angel has been around for over two hundred and forty years an..."

"No Buffy when he says a long long time...he means it." Willow clarified.

"How long, three hundred years, four hundred?" Buffy joked.

"Fifteen..." Willow began.

"Hundred?" Buffy guessed. "Okay that is quite old but..."

"Billion." Tara finished.

If it was possible, Buffy's jaw would have dropped thought the floor.

"B...bb..." Buffy stammered "Bbbillion years?"

"You can stop catching flies now, Buffy," Xander joked and received the death glare in return.

"How is that possible?" Buffy questioned. "How can anyone look that good at that age?"

Everyone turned to Buffy.

"I think you missing the point here, Buff."

"No, I'm serious Xander how can anyone look that good being that old? I mean he's got that wonderful brown hair and that smooth face and the eyes..." Buffy trailed off.

"Those eyes," Anya agreed.

"Eyes," Willow and Tara echoed.

If you had looked around, you would have seen four girls all staring into space, with dreamy looks on their faces.

"Oh, for God's sake." Giles sighed, rolling his eyes and cleaning his glasses.

"Anya. ANYA!" Xander shouted trying to get them to regain focus.

He ended up pinching her causing her to cry out, which snapped the other girls out of their day dreams and left them looking decidedly embarrassed.

"Thank God for that. Now can we get back to the point," Giles pointed out. The girls looked blankly at him. "The Guardian!" he exclaimed exasperated, as if he couldn't take much more.

"Right, right. What have you guys got?" Buffy asked, now regaining focus.

"Like we said, he's been around a long time and apparently he used to be human before he became what he is now," Willow explained.

"What is he then?" Xander asked.

"We're not sure." Replied Tara.

"That part of the books in another language and we tried translating it but we got nowhere. I don't even recognize the language."

"Never mind. What else?" said Buffy, trying to move the conversation along in an attempt to forget her doe eyed moment a few seconds earlier.

"It appears he was created by The Powers That Be to fight The First in some gigantic battle that will decide whether Good or Evil reigns."

"The First, you mean the thing that tries to make Angel commit suicide?"

Willow nodded.

"Reign over what?" asked Anya.

"Everything," explained Willow. "It's going to be the ultimate battle and he's the ultimate warrior. He was 'trained by the Gods'," she said, reading from the book. "I mean the Powers. He's the most powerful being ever to exist. The only beings more powerful are the Powers themselves. Other than them, the only being in the same league is...The First."

* * *

"I don't trust him," Buffy announced several minutes later.

"What...why?" Xander questioned. "He saved our lives remember."

"Yes, I know, but if he is really that powerful, then why does he need us? Why was he making sure we we're safe, if that was really what he was doing? After all, we researched him and he's the person who gave us the only book with any information on him in it." Buffy said, feeling smug that she had thought of all that. The others looked just as surprised at her as she was.

"What...? I have ideas...occasionally," Buffy said almost expecting them to laugh.

"B...Buffy does have a point," Tara said, almost afraid to break the silence. "We don't know anything except what he told us and...and there were all those sections we couldn't translate."

"Yes, I think we have to be careful where we tread," Giles agreed. "Especially if he is as powerful as the book describes."

"If the book is even real. He could have faked this." said Willow uncertainly.

"Next time he shows up, I'm going to follow him to see where he goes." Buffy stated, standing to go.

"I don...don't think you'll be able to," Tara said uncertainly as everyone except Giles, who understood what she was about to say, turned to her.

"Why do you say that?" said Willow. Giles rolled his eyes in disbelief that they didn't know.

"We...wel...well last time he didn't even leave by the door." said Tara, more uncertain than ever now that she was under everyone's gaze.

Seeing the point, Buffy sat down, a bit deflated after her earlier spout of ideas.

"And he did save my life." Tara said, almost a bit embarrassed.

"I still think I should try and follow him next time anyway. If he really is that powerful, we need to know we can trust him."


	3. CH3 Adam

Chapter 3 - Adam

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:20__th__ July 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – England – Surrey_

_Location:Pivet Drive – Little Whinging_

_Time:Afternoon_

Walking inside the house, Harry dragged his trunk to the foot of the stairs but before he could begin to climb a hand came down on top of the trunk.

"Oh no you don't," growled his uncle "That trunk and everything unnatural within it are staying in the cupboard."

Harry turned to him as his uncle took the trunk and shoved it into his former bedroom.

"How am I supposed to do my homework?" he asked, not overly politely but not actually rudely.

"You will have to find a way, wont you." Sneered his uncle as he put a pad lock on the cupboard door.

"Hedwig's food is in there." He returned.

"She can have bread and water." Vernon replied finally.

"Fine." Harry returned before marching up the stairs to his room; he knew Vernon wouldn't let her out to hunt either so he would have to think of something else.

As he reached his room he shoved the door open he walked inside and slammed the door shut.

Placing Hedwig's cage on the side table his owl hooted worriedly at him before he leaned down to talk to her.

"Don't worry girl I will get send you out to hunt if I can and if I can't I'll say something where I know the Order guard will hear and get them to bring you some food. Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you."

* * *

_Dimension:165 – Earth_

_Date:4__th __July 2001 AD_

_Country:USA – California_

_Location:Sunnydale – UC Sunnydale – Campus_

_Time:Afternoon_

Tara was walking back to her dorm across the patch of grass outside the main campus building , as she did not have any more classes that day she had arranged to meet Willow under her favourite tree, a very old oak (not a Willow) that must have been over a thousand years old. As she approached the tree, she saw an expensive black shoe protruding around the tree.

_Oh god, not a body, please not a body._

As it had been quiet for the Scoobies lately, something was bound to happen; it was never quiet for the Scoobies. She slowly leaned around the tree, and as she moved around, the shoe disappeared and a second later The Guardian walked around to face her and bowed his head.

This time he wore no cloak but a black shirt and tie, with a black business coat covering it and a pair of black leather gloves. That all together made Tara think that he looked very sexy, and as she was gay, that was saying something.

Tara was so surprised by his appearance she fell backwards over a root.

She closed her eyes as she fell not wanting to see the ground coming, when she didn't hit the ground she opened her eyes cautiously and looked around. She saw The Guardian's face mere inches from her own. He had caught her before she hit the ground.

_Thank God. That would have hurt. But he couldn't have moved that fast. It's not possible._

_Wow, he really does have nice eyes._

"Th...thank you." Tara stuttered getting transfixed. Looking in to them, she could see how deep they went. They were the eyes of a person who had been through an awful lot, the eyes of a person who had seen too much; they were haunted eyes; they had experienced pain, sadness and loss.

When she realizing she was staring, she looked away. The Guardian smiled that way he did and stood her up.

"You're welcome, Miss Maclay."

"T...T...Tara's fine." she stuttered.

"As you wish...Tara." he smiled. "You don't need to be afraid of me, Tara. I'm not going to hurt you."

_I'm not worried about that. I hadn't even thought of that. I'm just trying not to stare at you._

"I'm s...sorry. I'm always like this." she explained nervously.

"Come...sit with me." he suggested as he picked up the books that she had dropped as she fell.

_Okay Tara be careful. Don't let your guard down. Try and find out all you can._

Tara cautiously sat down beside him and took her books which he had placed beside her and clutched them to her chest. After a long pause the Guardian spoke but faced forward looking into space.

"I understand you are nervous and uncertain about whether you can trust me or not and I don't blame you. I wouldn't trust you if I hadn't been watching over you all."

_Was that an insult or a compliment?_

"H...how long have you been watching m...me?" Tara asked.

_Oh God, I hope he wasn't watching me when I've been with Willow._

The Guardian turned towards her. "Like I said yesterday, I have been watching over you since you were born. Don't worry. I respected your privacy. I watched you just enough to ensure your safety. I have seen the important roles you will all play in times to come."

_Seen!_

"You're a Seer?" Tara said, shocked by what she had just heard and by the fact that she had not stuttered when replying. It was then she noticed that in between the middle fingers of his right hand he was twirling a small silver disk with a hole in the middle. The disk appeared to have carvings on it, not runes but lines emanating from the centre and others joining points where they hit the outside edge, and others that seemed to originate from the crossover points. As it didn't seem important, she saw no reason to ask what it was, just something to amuse him probably.

"Partial seer," he corrected, turning back to look at the sky "I used to be able to see specific time frames, but now I can only see snippets and I cannot control when I see them. For example, I have seen clips of things that will happen in a year's time, I have seen snippets of time for the next five minutes and several possible outcomes for everything in between. The closer the period of time is, the clearer I see it. It only comes into full focus about a minute before it happens, if that, and even then I don't know when each event is going to occur...It all depends on how much power I have at the time."

_How much?_

"Isn't your power level fixed?" asked Tara, now becoming more confident.

"It used to be," he said slowly. Realizing she had hit a nerve Tara decided not to ask more on the subject, but The Guardian continued. "A long time ago when I was created I was as close to omnipotent as a non-God can be, but I saw something that was to happen and I realized that I must only keep a fraction of my power with me, because if I didn't it could be very dangerous." His tone stated that that line of questioning was over.

_I don't think I'll mention that again. I should think about getting information out of him. What else might the others want to know?_

"Guardian, I..."

"Adam." he interrupted.

"Pardon?" Tara said

"My name is Adam," he elaborated. "Too many people call me by my titles. Having someone actual call me by my name for once would be nice. After all, I've barely been called it...maybe fifty times in my fifteen billion years of existence as The Guardian and that's only if you do not count the time I spent in the Timeless Realms."

"Oh."

_I wonder what his other titles are. _

"You had a question." he pointed out.

"I was going to ask how you become The Guardian."

He looked at her with those big brown eyes and smiled slightly. Tara felt her stomach flip over in response.

_Focus Tara, focus. Just look at him and listen. Oh God, it's impossible._

"No one has ever actually asked me that, though I have been waiting for someone to ask me for millennia, I'm glad you did."

_Please no compliments. It makes it even harder._

"Well as you no doubt have read, I was originally human and I lived on a world much like this. The only difference was mine had no magic, no demons, no vampires, nothing." He stopped and sighed. "On the fourth of February 2005 at four o'clock in the evening, my universe was decimated."

_Decimated?_

"What could destroy a universe?" Tara questioned worriedly.

"A war of Gods." Adam sighed. "My planet had been chosen to be the battlefield for the war for exactly the reasons that my world is different to yours: no magic meant no interference from lower beings. When the forces of Light and Dark unleashed their power my universe was left in ruins. The only place in my universe that still exists is my home planet and that is only because that was where the Gods actually fought. The blast wiped out everything else and left my planet in ruins, a dead lifeless place...The battle was a dead heat, but realizing what they had done the Gods decided that they themselves could never make war again, so it was decided to create two champions to fight the war for them. I was chosen because it was my home world that was destroyed ...I was taught how to fight, how to use magic. I received training from The One himself."

_One?_

"Excuse me. The One what?"

"The One, The First God, the one who created all the other Gods and gave them people to rule over. He was the only God not to enter the fight as he knew...well I call him a he, in reality he doesn't have a gender... that his power was too immense. The champion for Darkness was The First...he has been around since evil was first created, when we fight I will command the forces of Light and he the forces of Darkness, it will be the greatest battle ever. Even the clash of the Gods will be insignificant in comparison."

When he had finished Tara just stared at him in disbelief at what she had just been told.

"Oh," was all she could manage to say. Adam smiled in response then pulled out his pocket watch and checked the time.

_Wait_..._how many hands has that watch got? I'm sure I saw at least six._

"I'm afraid I have to go. It was nice to talk to you," he smiled. "I'll see you again soon. Good day," he said, bowing his head before he walked off.

_Why does he have to be that much of a gentleman? It makes it even harder to concentrate._

Tara sat there for about twenty seconds before she realized what she was doing. She looked up in time to see Buffy and Willow walk up to her.

_Look normal. Look normal. Don't blush. Whatever you do, don't blush._

"Tara, are you okay?" Willow asked as she crouched beside her "You looked distant."

"I'm fine...I...I was talking to The Guardian," she explained.

"Are you okay? Where did he go?" Buffy asked, the second question was asked without waiting for an answer to the first.

"That way." Tara gestured.

"Come on." Buffy urged as she started walking in that direction. They trailed after her.

_I hope he doesn't see us. He'll probably be angry that we followed him_

As they turned around the building corner into the car park, they were in time to see The Guardian gracefully step into what looked like a dark blue sports car and pull away.

Buffy sighed in defeat.

"Buffy." a voice called.

Looking up, Tara saw Giles' car approach with Xander and Anya in the back.

_That can't be a coincidence._

"Perfect timing, Giles." Buffy said as she jumped in to the front after pushing Willow and Tara into the back. Their greetings weren't heard as anything other than yelps at being pushed in to a very cramped space, although Anya was not complaining from her new position on Xander's lap.

"Follow that car."

Sensing the seriousness in Buffy's voice, Giles did so without question.

"So what did he tell you?" Buffy asked, turning back to Tara.

Over the next fifteen minutes, the conversation was repeated by Tara. It wouldn't have taken that long normally but Buffy's business face made Tara stutter more than normal.

After she had finished speaking another long silence would have started if at that point had they not pulled into a driveway outside of a medium sized house.

Looking around they could see that they were just on the edge of Sunnydale, so on the edge in fact that the 'Welcome to Sunnydale' sign was just on the other side of the house.

The house was old, well kept, with a neat garden and driveway. The Guardian had walked up to the door and had entered before the Scoobies dared approach.

"Come on," urged Buffy as they all crept up to the front door.

"Oh, Jaguar E-Type." Smiled Giles as they past the car.

"Giles," called Buffy "You can ogle the car later."

Slowly opening the door, which no one seemed to notice wasn't locked, the group crept inside. The interior was awe inspiring. The floor was covered with a royal looking red carpet and a large set of stairs directly in front of them (the type you would expect in a large old fashioned house) rose and split into two, leading off to the left and right. The entire area was lit by candles and a few large windows.

Pausing inside the doorway, Buffy walked back outside to look at the house and then back in.

"Does anyone see anything strange about this house?" she asked.

"You mean like the fact that the inside is several times bigger than outside."

"Yes like that." She nodded.

Ignoring the fact for the time being, they slowly starting walking up the stairs. At the top where the stairs split there was a painting upon the wall. The painting must have been at least six foot tall and four foot wide. It was a portrait of a woman, who appeared to be between eighteen and twenty years of age. She had straight red hair that flowed down to the middle of her back and the most beautiful pale blue eyes. She was wearing a simple white gown and she was standing at an angle looking out of the painting, with a smile of pure happiness on her face.

It was at this point that the men discovered what the girls felt every time they looked at The Guardian, but this was much more intense. If the girls had classified The Guardian as a God, they would have had to call her a Goddess. She was by far the most beautiful thing they had ever seen. She was so beautiful that even the girls stared in awe and Anya and Buffy considered the possibility of following Willow and Tara's example.

"Wow," was the only word any of them managed to say. In this case Buffy said it.

After about five minutes of staring, Buffy managed to snap out of the paralysed state they were all in, although she didn't know why. She would have been content to stare at that painting for hours.

"Guys, GUYS!" she yelled in an attempt to snap the group out of their transfixed state, in the end she resorted to pinching them and as she was The Slayer it HURT.

"Owww, BUFFY. What did you do that for?" Xander complained.

"We have to keep moving," she said firmly, forcing the others to reluctantly move up the stairs.

At the top, corridors stretched in both directions. All the doors were large and strong, made out of oak.

The group began carefully searching the long landing and its rooms, after number twenty all they had uncovered was a lot of posh quest rooms that none of them would mind staying in permanently.

When they got to another door two floors up they discovered a huge room still decorated in a grand style but with a huge curved bay window stretching along the far wall, the rest of the room and walls were covered in every type of musical instrument possible, including some none of them had seen before.

"Wow," said Anya. "He could sure earn a lot playing these all the time." which caused all the others to turn.

"Do you ever think of anything other than money?" asked Willow.

"Oh yes. Orgasms." She grinned, earning a squeak from Xander.

Trying to ignore the awkward moment the rest moved into the room and examined the instruments. When they reached the window, they were all shocked to see what could only be described as a British country garden, the sort you see in pastel colour paintings. There was an apple tree halfway down a long lawn, with flowers and hedges lining the borders. In the hedges, every type of British garden wildlife resided. It really was a picture out of a novel.

"It looks like home," Giles said happily through almost teary eyes. His eyes also showed longing.

"Come on. We must go," Buffy urged, not liking the idea of seeing her mentor teary eyed.

The next room they entered was filled with every conceivable type of hand-to-hand weapon. At the end of this room was a door. Walking up to it, they could tell just from looking at it that there was no point in trying to force your way in as you wouldn't be able to. Buffy tried anyway, after trying the handle she attempting to put her shoulder through it.

"Ouch" complained Buffy staggering back before running at it again.

...and again

"Buffy, your making too much noise." warned Giles.

She tried twice more before finally accepting what Giles had said. The door hadn't so much as moved an inch.

They moved to the next door along the corridor. Like the last, it was filled with weapons, but this time all for long range use and again there was a door on the far wall. This time Buffy knew the result and didn't even try to force entry.

The next was a library even bigger than the one at UC Sunnydale. There were books everywhere. Willow and Giles were almost drooling. It was very hard to drag them away.

The next room was the most confusing, yet as soon as they entered they realized that they were walking on grass and looking around they saw trees and plants. It appeared to be a small garden. There was a natural waterfall in the corner and a stream. Around them were ancient trees.

"How can...we were," Buffy started turning back to the door, which from this side looked like a stone arch standing alone in the middle of the garden.

"It's beautiful." commented Willow.

"But how, how can it?" Buffy tried again.

"We can find out later." Giles interrupted leading the way back through the arch into the hall.

Finally they came to the end of the corridor where there was a large set of double doors. They tentatively opened them and walked in.

This room looked like a lounge, a very large one. It had a bay window and a balcony against one wall, two bookshelves along another, a massive fireplace with a pair of cross swords above it along the third and a writing desk and a series of cupboards along the last, there were a series of paintings along the walls as well.

The room had a warm glow about it and not just because of the fire in the huge hearth, although it didn't seem to radiate heat.

The room contained one large armchair and two sofas that would each seat three. They were arranged with a table in-between and the fire making up the forth wall. There were also a few plants in the corners along with some hard back chairs. A grandfather clock and a mini bar lined the same wall as the cupboards.

As the others walked around, Willow dropped down into the armchair and sat on its edge.

A fairly familiar voice said, "If you would be so kind to remove yourself from my lap."


	4. CH4 Companions

Chapter 4 – Companions

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:20__th__ July 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – England – Surrey_

_Location:Pivet Drive – Little Whinging_

_Time:Late Afternoon_

Harry had lain on his bed for several minutes after he had returned to number four before it happened, he had heard someone coming up the stairs but hadn't thought anything of it at the time.

He likewise planned to ignore whoever had entered his room; he wasn't in the mood to deal with his relatives yet.

The first sign of trouble came from Hedwig's alarmed screech.

He opened his eyes just in time to see a shadow of something moving at him fast followed by intense pain.

* * *

_Dimension:165 – Earth_

_Date:4__th __July 2001 AD_

_Country:USA – California_

_Location:Sunnydale – The Guardian's Mansion – The Living Room_

_Time:Afternoon_

"If you would be so kind to remove yourself from my lap, I would like to offer my guests a drink."

Willow had never moved so fast in her life. She leapt out of the chair and almost sent herself and Xander, who just happened to be in the way, tumbling to the floor.

Turning her head Willow turned saw that she had been sitting in The Guardian's lap.

After she had steadied herself, Willow and everyone (except Anya of course) had the decency to look embarrassed at being caught snooping. The Guardian smiled at their reactions, especially Anya's indifference. He was wearing his black shirt, tie, shoes and trousers again but without the black coat or gloves.

"Please sit down. There is no need to be embarrassed." he stated calmly.

"We...we apologize for..." Giles started.

"There is no need to. I would be worried if you hadn't come and started looking around. Why do you think I was sitting here and didn't jump up and start demanding answers the second you opened the door?"

"How did you know we would come?" Tara enquired, surprising everyone, as she was usually quieter and keeping to the background.

"I heard Buffy say she didn't trust me as I left Mr. Giles's yesterday," he explained.

"That was at least five minutes after you left," Buffy said, confused. "You were outside, listening to what we said?" she said rather angrily.

"No, I was at least one hundred meters away by then."

"Then how could you hear what I said?"

"I have excellent hearing." he smiled.

"No kidding," Anya chimed in.

"If you don't mind me asking," Tara questioned, changing the subject. "Why do you need the help of people like us if you are as powerful as the book says?"

"There are certain rules I have to obey. If I defeat every evil, then how will people like you gain experience? Certain people must kill or fight certain others in order for history to play out the way it should."

"But if you are to fight this battle, then why do you need our help?" Giles inquired.

"When does evil ever play by the rules? When I fight The First, he's going to bring an army with him. Who's going to fight them for me? You remember I told you that the demons and vampires that attacked you were killing champions, well that is why."

"Oh." Buffy said, slightly worried.

"Now please sit." He said gesturing towards the seats, before offering them drinks. All the junior members (including Anya) other than Tara asked for assorted soft drinks, or a beer in Xander's case.

"What about you, Mr. Giles? Tara? Tea? Earl Grey?"

"Please." they both answered, slightly surprised at being offered. "And please it's just Giles or Rupert if you'd prefer."

"The same goes for the rest of us." Willow added.

"In that case, call me Adam. As I told Tara, I get annoyed being called The Guardian everywhere I go."

"By the way, Giles." Buffy remembered. "Why did you come up to the University?"

"You called me." Giles said, confused by her question.

"I have to apologise, that was me." Adam started. "I knew once Buffy saw me she'd have to follow me on foot and drag Willow and Tara along after my car. And as I foresaw Buffy approaching, I called you using a pay phone, emulating Buffy's voice and told you to round up the others so you could all hear and see everything for yourselves. I apologize for the deception, Rupert."

Accepting his explanation, Giles nodded forgiveness.

At this moment the door was pushed open a crack. Everyone except The Guardian looked around to see who entered. A very large black cat had entered the room, went straight to The Guardian's chair, jumped up and settled itself comfortably in his lap.

The Guardian didn't even move when the cat jumped on him; he just idly started stroking the cat. The others were studying the cat, although they didn't know why. The cat itself turned and looked at all of them in turn.

Looking into the cat's eyes, Tara was sure she saw something but she didn't know what. If she didn't know better, she would say that it was more than just a cat.

"Everyone please allow me to introduce Mystique." Adam said gesturing to the cat, who as if on cue lowered its head as if bowing. It then proceeded to jump off his lap, land on the table and walk along before jumping into a very surprised Tara's lap, there it proceeded to nuzzle her hand. She cautiously began to stroke it. Miss Kitty Fantastical would hate the scent when she got back home.

At this point Xander looked around and fell out of his seat with shock, causing the other's attention to be pulled away from the cat.

Sitting beside where Xander had been was the biggest dog or maybe jackal any of them had ever seen. It was pure white and looked to be the most graceful and streamlined creature they had ever encountered. Unlike most dogs, this dog was not looking dopey or soppy by drooling or letting its tongue hang out, it looked sharp, intelligent and aware.

"And this is Lylacor."

Anya reached around the nervous Xander who had perched himself on the corner of his seat to avoid getting too close to the animal and trying to preserve what little dignity he had left after the fall. Anya eagerly scratched the dog under his chin and it leaned into her touch.

"They are my companions." Adam explained as Lylacor moved around closer to Anya and put his front legs up on the settee and started affectionately licking her hand, while she laughed.

"Lylacor." Adam said in his usual voice causing the dog to turn to him.

He gestured to the floor with his eyes and the dog jumped back down, still allowing Anya to stroke him. If anyone had been watching Mystique at this point, they would have seen her rolling her eyes and giving Lylacor a look that said "Dogs".

"Adam if you don't mind me asking, what species of dog is that? I'm afraid I don't recognize it." Giles asked, earning a growl from animal in question.

"That's because he's not from this dimension and he's not a dog. He's a snow wolf, or white wolf, so please call him a wolf not a..." he paused as the wolf turned to him with a warning glance, "D.O.G." Lylacor turned back to Anya after sending Adam a "Don't be patronizing" look.

"Oh I almost forgot," Adam explained, clicking his fingers, causing a tray of drinks appeared on the table and each glass or cup floated very steadily to the person in question, all of whom took their drinks carefully out of the air.

At the same time a tray of refreshments appeared, containing cookies, doughnuts, pastries, scones, assorted biscuits, nuts, crisps and some fresh 'dipable' vegetables (like raw carrot and celery) with the appropriate dips, along with a large plate of chocolate fingers.

Needless to say, the others were a little surprised and hesitant to eat until Xander picked up a doughnut and started eating. The others just stared at him as he ate.

"What?" he said around a mouthful.

"Please tuck in. I assure you I have not poisoned anything," Adam said smiling. After that they did start eating, though more civilized than Xander's 'stuff your face' technique.

Adam, Giles and Tara being the most sensible of the assembled group picked up plates to eat their food from, Giles and Adam both took scones, while most of the others helped themselves to doughnuts and chocolate fingers, Tara decided to follow Adam and Giles example and try a scone. Cutting her scone in half she turned back to them.

"Which do you put on first, cream or jam?"

Adam smiled at the question.

"That's one of the great British debates." He replied.

"There are two types of scone," explained Giles "If you live in Devon you apply the cream first.

"And if you are from Cornwall you apply the jam first." Finished Adam.

Tara looked at the scones on their plates and saw that both had spread the jam first, deciding to try their way she began spreading the jam.

As soon as Giles took a bite out of his scone he let out a moan of pleasure, which caused the others to stare.

"I haven't had a scone this good since I was last back in England." Giles explained around the remains of the scone.

The Guardian made a sound of agreement as he finished his own.

"It's so hard to get good food over here, even in England you only ever get really good scones from Devon and Cornwall, good old fashioned cream teas with home made clotted cream." Adam replied, obviously enjoying the thought.

"You're British?" Tara said while placing cream on her second scone, obviously having enjoyed her first.

Adam nodded. "Can't you tell? Only the British know how to make a really good cream tea." he said, raising his scone to make his point.

"You made these yourself?" Giles asked.

"I did. I made all of these," he stated. "Except the vegetables, I grew those; it helps to take up time"

"You made the chocolate fingers," Buffy said sceptically.

"They are a very simple recipe."

Buffy stared at him as if to say, "Really?"

He nodded in response.

"If I don't know how to cook after fifteen billion years, I never will."

"Adam, if you don't mind me asking, where did this house come from?" Giles inquired "I have been past the town limits before and this building wasn't here the last time I passed."

Adam leaned forward and finished his mouthful.

"It's not really here. This is an...an illusion, if you will. The inside is a partial replica of my house, as it has been a long time since I have been there and I like to be reminded every so often." he said the last words sadly.

"It's all magic?" Willow asked in wonder.

"Certainly."

Buffy glanced at the clock and got up like a shot. "Oh shoot, we were supposed to pick up Dawn from school."

"Well then," Adam said, placing his plate on the tray and standing up. "Let's go and get her." he proceeded towards the door before the Scoobies could ask questions, the others followed after him, Xander was last as he had stopped to get another chocolate finger, before leaving the animals alone in the room.

When they got outside, there was a black stretched limousine waiting for them, complete with driver holding the door open for them.

"Afternoon Sir."

"Afternoon Parker." replied Adam as he moved to get into the vehicle, stopping briefly to ask the driver a question. "By the way Parker, who won the football?"

The driver smiled. "England did Sir." he replied happily.

He smiled slightly and got into the car, followed by the others.

The limousine had a black leather interior, with a wood finish. The seats were arranged so everyone could see each other.

"You like soccer?" Xander inquired.

"Football," corrected Adam "Not really."

"Then why did you ask who won?" Xander asked, confused as they felt the vehicle set off.

"Because I hate it when we loose to the French."

Adam reached down beside one of the seats and lifted the lid to a small concealed fridge. "Drink, anyone? I'm afraid I've only got champagne."

"Only!" Willow exclaimed.

A couple of minutes driving later (which confused them as it should have been at least fifteen minutes journey) they pulled up outside the High School, just as the bell rang.

Climbing out of the vehicle they waited until they saw Dawn and her friend leave the building before approaching.

Needless to say, Dawn was more than a little shocked when she saw her sister standing in front of a limo, what surprised the Scoobies was that she was, for once, speechless.

"Dawn, this is Adam, also known as The Guardian," Giles introduced. "Adam, this is Dawn, Buffy's sister."

Adam moved forward, took her hand and kissed it, sending Dawn's face the colour of Willow's hair.

When The Guardian looked up, he looked into Dawn's eyes and seemed to study her for a moment.

After no more than a second, he stopped and very calmly said.

"Charmed."


	5. CH5 Traitor

Chapter 5 – Traitor

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:20__th__ July 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – England – Surrey_

_Location:Pivet Drive – Little Whinging_

_Time:Late Afternoon_

"Thin your friends could threaten me did you? Well let this teach you a lesson in respect Boy, I can't be threatened and while you are inside this house you belong to me."

With that Vernon turned and marched out of the room leaving a badly injured Harry lying on the floor, clutching at his stomach.

As soon as Vernon had entered the room he had attacked Harry with his fist, Harry never got the chance to defend himself, he had been hit twice in the head before he had been thrown to the floor and kicked in the stomach several times but he hadn't given Vernon the satisfaction of groaning or begging him to stop.

Hedwig gave a quite worried hoot, Vernon had told her he would kill him if she didn't stop all the noise she had been making.

"I'm ok girl." He replied painfully, pulling himself up onto the bed "I've had worse."

With a large groan he turned himself over so he was lying on hit back.

"I'll be ok in a couple of days."

He didn't get the chance to say more as his cousin walked in, rubbing his fists.

* * *

_Dimension:165 – Earth_

_Date:5__th __July 2001 AD_

_Country:USA – California_

_Location:Sunnydale – The Factory_

_Time:Early Morning /i _

Late that night on patrolBuffy entered the factory; you could see just by looking around the building was falling to pieces. She wouldn't even be there if she hadn't seen the security guard in the hospital.

She went up to the first floor after finding nothing except the odd rat and broken pillar on the ground floor.

Upon reaching the top of the stairs she immediately saw that the door to the main storeroom and half the wall around it was not where it was supposed to be. The door was at least three inches thick and was lying on the floor with huge dents in it.

It looked like it had been hit with a tank. She didn't think even Adam could cause damage like that.

She moved into the room. In the centre of the room was a chair containing what appeared to be a badly beaten monk.

She ran to him and immediately undid the ropes, binding him to the seat.

"Hey, it was you who planted the Dagon Sphere right...I got it...Don't worry. I'm stronger than I look. I've had experience with stuff like this before." Looking up she saw the monk looking over her shoulder with a look of horror.

Listening Buffy could hear faint not very subtle foot falls approaching, probably the sound of them from heels.

"And best of all..." she jumped up and turned around in time to grab a blond woman in a red dress around the neck. "I'm not stupid."

The women removed Buffy's arm from her neck and flung her across the room with little or no effort.

As she climbed to her feet Buffy turned to look at the women with fear in her eyes.

"You sure about that last part?" said the women as Buffy straightened up. "Because if you end up dead, don't say I didn't tell you so."

Buffy ran at the women and sent a flurry of punches and kicks at her, but each was blocked and ended in Buffy hitting the wall and leaving major indentations in the concrete.

Buffy got thrown against the wall again, landing with a grunt.

"And another thing, I just want you to know." the woman marched over and picked Buffy up off the floor while rambling to Buffy, though to tell the truth she wasn't listening "This whole beat you black thing I'm doing is valuable time out of life that I'm never going to get back."

Buffy managed to send a kick her way, but the woman easily dodged it.

Buffy cried out in pain as the woman started forcing Buffy's arms back to her sides after a failed punch.

"Wait. I've always wanted to try this. You know where you get a worm and cut it in half and you get two worms." she leaned in closer. "Do you think it will work with you?"

With all her might, Buffy leaned back and slammed her head forward, head-butted the woman, causing her to release her and grabbed her head in shock.

"You hit me. What, are you crazy?" said the woman in astonishment

Buffy started reigning punches down on the woman

"You just can't go around," the woman said in between blows to the face "Hitting people...(punch) ...What were you... (punch) ...born in a barn?"

Finally she managed to grab Buffy.

"Fine, be that way." the woman said slamming her into a concrete pillar and making large holes in it when she missed the following punches, before catching Buffy around the neck.

"I just noticed you have super powers. That is so cool. Can you fly?"

Buffy flew ten meters through the air and closed her eyes in preparation for the impact...but it never came.

She opened her eyes to see she was hovering in the air a meter from the ground.

"Hey no magic! That's cheating!" shouted the woman.

Buffy was lowered to the ground. She turned to see a very familiar cloak covered figure facing the woman. He lowered his arm to his side after letting her feet touch the floor comfortably right next to the monk.

"Two on one's no fair. Who are you anyway? And you do know that you've got some serious case of dark prince envy going on."

Adam lowered his hood and let his cloak slide to the floor, revealing the attire he wore on campus.

The woman put on a happy surprised look, her tone immediately changing from annoyed to the sort of tone Cordelia used to use when chatting to her groupies.

"Hey you...how you been?"

"The same as ever, Glorificus. Yourself?"

"Oh please, call me Glory. And terrible, this mortal body is a real drag...how do you deal with it?"

"You get used to it after several billion years." replied Adam.

_He's creating a distraction, giving me the chance to get the monk out _thought Buffy.

She turned to the monk who though untied hadn't been able to leave the chair due to his injuries; she grabbed him and moved him quickly to the nearby window as Glory was between them and the door.

"Hey, hey! Hands off my holy man!" she heard shouted as they ran for the window, hearing Glory running after them.

_God I hope Adam can stop her._

She jumped through the window and turned them around so when they landed she was underneath. She landed hard but ignored the pain.

She quickly pulled the monk to his feet and half carried him; half dragged him as fast as she could towards the gate.

As they reached it, Buffy turned around and saw a huge cloud of dust and rubble emerge from the window and the sounds of the building collapsing internally.

_Sounds like Adam's finishing her off...or she's finishing him off?_

"Stop...please." the monk struggled.

"No, we have to keep going." Buffy urged as the monk collapsed against the gate.

"My journey is done."

"Don't get metaphory on me."

"You have to...The Key. You must protect The Key."

"Fine, we can protect The Key together, just, far, far from here," she said, looking back at the factory. She didn't know how long the fight would continue.

"Many more die, if you don't keep it safe."

"How, what is it?"

"The Key is energy. It's a portal. It opens the door."

"The...The Dagon Sphere?" she asked.

"No. For centuries it had no form at all. My brethren were its last keepers. Then the abomination..." he said, looking back at the factory. "...found us. We had to hide The Key, gave it form, moulded it into flesh and sent it to you."

"Dawn." Buffy realized.

"She's The Key."

"You put that in my house," she said on the verge of tears "Why not give it to The Guardian? He's more powerful than..."

"We knew The Slayer would protect." he interrupted.

"Why not give it to The Guardian?" she repeated, shaking him, trying to force out the answer.

"We knew The Slayer would protect." he repeated, avoiding the question.

"My memories? My mom's?"

"We built them."

"Then un-build them. This is my life you're..." she was cut of by the monk choking heavily

"You can not abandon."

"I didn't ask for this. I don't even know. What is she?"

"Human...now human and helpless. Please, she's an innocent in this. She needs you."

"She's not my sister."

"She doesn't know that." his eyes then drifted down and stared into space.

_Why me?_

_Why not Adam?_

* * *

_Dimension:165 – Earth_

_Date:19__th __July 2001 AD_

_Country:USA – California_

_Location:Sunnydale – The Magic Box_

_Time:Afternoon_

After the events of that night not much had happened on the Glory front, or on any other front other than the creation and sudden demise of her pet snake and the attack of the troll. Until...

Two weeks later, at the Magic Box after they had shut up shop, Dawn, Willow, Giles, Tara, Xander and Anya are there busilyresearching (or in Anya, Xander and Dawn's case, trying not to.)

"This is getting us nowhere." Anya protested.

"Well, what would you suggest instead?" Giles said, equally frustrated, though partially because of their constant complaining.

"We haven't asked Spike yet." Willow suggested.

"I hate to admit it, but she's right. We haven't. Has anyone got money on them?" Xander asked

"Here." Giles said annoyed that it had come down to this as he went to the till, which caused Anya to look up alarmed at the sound of the thing opening, she resisted the urge to jump up and slam the till shut, with Giles fingers in it if necessary.

"There is one other person you haven't asked." Dawn added.

When most gave her blank looks, she rolled her eyes.

"She means Adam," Tara finished.

Everyone except Giles murmured in realization.

"I have already tried to contact him; I went to his house only to see an empty plot of land." He explained "So we haven't seen him since he helped Buffy escape from that woman."

"When was the last time anyone saw him?" Buffy asked.

"Yesterday." Dawn said proudly.

Everyone turned to her in shock; apparently she'd neglected to mention this little snippet of information.

"Didn't I tell you? He came round, well, actually he appeared when Buffy and Mom were at the hospital, he kept me company until they got home. I'll ask him when I see him." She replied smugly.

All of a sudden an almighty crash was heard from the front of the shop. Everyone turned towards the source of the sound.

The shop window was in a thousand pieces and littering the floor whilst Glory stood atop the rubble, her hands on her hips.

"Hey everyone, just doing some window shopping." she strode forward, knocking aside shelves as she went. Xander, Giles and Buffy moved in front as Willow, Tara and Anya moved to protect Dawn (and the cash register).

"A friend told me that my Key was here, so hand it over and no one gets hurt...much."

"You are not having h...It." Giles responded, quickly corrected himself

"Are you going to stop her?" asked another voice from the door.

Adam was standing there looking if possible darker than usual.

"Help us!" Dawn called.

He pondered that for a second. "No...No, I think not." he announced as he moved towards the group, who grew even more protective as he approached. Xander threw himself at Adam while Giles moved at Glory. Giles was grabbed and thrown over the counter. Xander ended up being blown across the shop and landing on the upper level.

Willow and Tara magically threw furniture at the pair, but it was easily deflected be either a blast of magic from Adam or a gentle hand swipe from Glory.

Willow then tried sending a fireball, which blew Glory across the shop, she immediately got back to her feet, not even fazed by the impact.

"Didn't your parents ever teach you not to play with fire?" Adam mocked.

Tara threw a less powerful fireball in his direction which he caught and threw back twice as powerful.

It blew both witches into the nearest wall. Anya was also quickly dispatched by a back hand from Glory.

Dawn looked wide eyed and panicked and backed up against the wall.

"Hello Dawn," Adam welcomed her with an evil smile on his face. "Or should I say Key."

Dawn sunk down the wall and tried to shrink away from him.

"Traitor." she growled in fear.

He laughed.

"My Key is a person." Glory exclaimed beaming. "Clever little monks."

Adam reaching out to grab Dawn.

Dawn pressed herself further into the wall, closing her eyes tightly. She felt Adam's hand begin to close around her arm.

There was a sudden flash of light which she could see through her eyelids before she felt Adam's arm wrenched away from her.

Opening her eyes, she saw that Adam and Glory were no longer in front of her and were getting to their feet on the far side of the shop.

Dawn turned in the direction of the light she had seen. In the window hovering about two inches above the floor was another Adam wearing a look that could have melted steel.

"Would you care to try that again?"


	6. CH6 Two Of A Kind

Chapter 6 – Two Of A Kind

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:21__st__ July 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – England – Surrey_

_Location:Pivet Drive – Little Whinging_

_Time:Evening_

The next day Harry was lying in bed, he had been allowed out of his room only once since being attacked the day before to use the bathroom, after that he had been locked in his room without food for himself or Hedwig whose cage now had a padlock on it.

He had managed earlier in the day to look under the floorboards but unfortunately there was no food left from last year, not that it would have been suitable for human consumption after so long.

What made it even worse was the fact that he had been feeling groggy all day and he didn't think it was due to the incredible pain from the broken bones he was sure he now had.

He had tried earlier to reach the window so that whoever was guarding him would be able to see him, he knew the window was sealed shut but he may be able to let them know that he was injured and starving, unfortunately the attempt had left him lying on the floor after he had collapsed as soon as he tried to stand up straight.

This wasn't just because of the assault, something else was wrong with him.

* * *

_Dimension:165 – Earth_

_Date:19__th __July 2001 AD_

_Country:USA – California_

_Location:Sunnydale – The Magic Box_

_Time:Afternoon_

"Would you care to try that again?"

The first Adam got to his feet and flicked a bit of plaster off his shoulder.

"Well, well, well. It looks like the big G has finally shown up. I was beginning to wonder if you were going to show at all. After all, these are your champions, are they not?"

Adam (the one in the doorway) did nothing.

"Well come on. You're not just going to stand there. Let me have it."

"You know better than to mock me." warned the one in the doorway, still wearing the hard expressionless stare.

"Oh go on. You know you want to," the other one continued to taunt.

The one in the doorway held his ground.

"Oh come on big G. Show me what you've got."

The one in the doorway nodded slowly. "If you insist."

A blast of fire leapt from his hand and exploded halfway between the twins where the fireball collided with an identical fireball coming in the opposite direction, exploding in a flash of fire setting the nearby remains of the wooden shelves alight.

Another fireball followed which was easily deflected by the first twin, setting another shelf alight. He returned fire, but the fire was blocked by the one in the doorway. The twin in the shop drew a sword much like the first sword they had seen except the blade and hilt were pure black. Adam drew his own which was now glowing white.

There was a tense moment as they sized each other up. In one swift parallel movement they flew at each other, jumping from their positions at either end of the shop, colliding in the middle, swords clashing and wood was sent flying.

Blows were exchanged, dodged and sent so fast that the onlookers could barely keep track of the movements.

Blades clashed in a dazzling display of skill unrivalled in this world.

The battle continued for at least a minute before the action seemed to freeze. The first twin had the white sword through his shoulder. He grunted in pain before being blasted off the sword and flying across the shop towards the door by a fireball at point blank range to the chest.

"Leave." Adam warned as his twin unsteadily regained his footing.

The twin didn't move.

Adam thrust his arm out.

"Naur!"

A massive ball of fire, bigger than anything seen so far, rocketed towards the twin and engulfed him. He howled in pain, before turning tail and retreating from the scene, attempting to put the fires out.

Adam then turned to Glory in such as to say "One down."

His expression quickly turned to one of serious concern.

During the fight, while everyone had been transfixed, Glory had moved slowly behind Dawn and now had her in a very tight head lock.

Dawn began to struggle getting everyone's attention. They moved very rapidly in Glory's direction.

"I would stop if I were you Adam...and the same goes for all of you little people, because if you move any closer I might be tempted to maybe, you know...snap her neck." she said in that insanely cheerful voice of hers. "So get out of the way, children, or your little schoolgirl gets it."

She started edging towards the door as everyone else moved around her while also trying to get closer without making it obvious.

"You know that is an empty threat Glorificus," Adam commented from his position only two meters from the Hell God. "If you kill her, you can't open that portal."

"Yeah well in case you haven't noticed I'm little bit crazy. Here's an idea. Maybe I could just suck out her brain," she said, gripping Dawn tighter and causing the others to flinch forward. "Ah ah none of that, you don't want to do anything stupid now do ya? Bye."

She made a dash for the door, taking Dawn with her, but before she got there two very fast objects dashed through the doorway, collided with Glory and sent her flying back to the bottom of the steps.

The first object, which turned out to be Black Panther, dragged the now unconscious Dawn, who had passed out from lack of air, away from Glory, before returning to help the other object which turned out to be Lylacor at scratching and biting the living daylights out of Glory.

The Scoobies rushed over to Dawn and put out the fires that started during the fight.

Adam let out a piercing whistle, which stopped the animals in their tracks and summoned them to his sides.

Glory staggered to her feet, bloody and torn. "Damn you and those infernal beasts Adam. Damn you." The animals growled.

"I'm going to get her. I swear it." she announced before running out of the shop.

When Glory had left, all eyes turned to Adam and the animals, some in thanks, some in astonishment, some in fear at the fact that there was a Panther in the room with them and that someone looking exactly like him had attacked them.

The panther turned to Adam and jumped up to him. In mid flight, it reduced in size turning into Mystique, who Adam caught in his arms.

"Good work, my friends." he thanked the animals, scratching Mystique under her chin.

"I didn't know she could do that?" Buffy asked while wearing her confused face, which she realized she was wearing all too often these days.

"If you think that's impressive, you should see them at their grandest."

No one even wanted to ask what he meant.

Adam, still with Mystique in his arms, walked over to Dawn, who had regained consciousness but who was shaking with fear. He knelt down in front of her and brushed his hand down the side of her face.

"Sîdh." he whispered calmly before removing his hand.

Dawn instantly grew still and calm. He smiled and stood up as Mystique jumped into Dawn's lap and nuzzled her hand in comfort.

"I am guessing you are wondering who that was." After some agreeing murmurs, he continued.

"That was my brother."


	7. CH7 Brother

Chapter 7 – Brother

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:23__rd__ July 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – England – Surrey_

_Location:Pivet Drive – Little Whinging_

_Time:Evening_

Two days later Harry was still locked in his room.

But now he was absolutely certain something was wrong with him.

Every time he tried to get up he collapsed out of exhaustion, as the scattered books, quills and the broken lamp proved.

He had tried to get up several times to look up what was wrong with him in his school books but he just could not hold on to them.

What made it worse was that his skin was extremely hot but he felt frozen solid.

He still had not had any food since he had returned, once yesterday Petunia had come in with a couple of slices of stale looking bread but as soon as she had seen the look of him shaking, shivering and sweating like mad she immediately left the room taking the bread with her.

He doubted any of them would come near him again and what made it worse was that he no longer even had the strength to heave himself of the bed.

No matter how he looked at it, he could not see any way to get help.

* * *

_Dimension:165 – Earth_

_Date:19__th __July 2001 AD_

_Country:USA – California_

_Location:Sunnydale – The Magic Box_

_Time:Afternoon_

"That was my brother." he said solemnly, his gaze on the floor.

The sentence hung in the air for over a minute before anyone spoke.

"Your brother?" Willow finally asked.

"Yes," he answered, slowly moving into one of the chairs that was still in one piece. He collapsed in to it. The effort of the fight had evidently taken a lot out of him.

For the slightest second, his face also showed sadness. Only those watching closely would have noticed (in this case only Tara). It pained her to see someone so strong looking so low.

The others moved to sit or lean against various surfaces that still remained intact to listen to what he was about to tell them.

"I created James over two billion years ago as a contrast to myself."

"Created?" asked Willow

"If anything were to ever happened to me," he continued. "He would take over."

"Wait," Anya interrupted. "Doesn't that make you his father, rather than his brother?"

Adam smiled slightly.

"It's an interesting dilemma, isn't it? Though I created him, he is also my twin as he is an exact biological copy of myself, though I am over thirteen billion years older. I have always called him brother, as he did before he was corrupted."

"Corrupted?" Giles questioned, leaning closer. From the look on all their faces it was evident they were hanging on his every word.

"I spent millennia training him. After about ten million years he had learned everything that I was prepared to teach and I believed it was time he had the chance to find his own way in the universe, hopefully I would never have to call on him to take over for me."

He paused to sigh.

"No sooner had he left than he was attacked by agents of The First. They subdued him and infected him with darkness." he paused, obviously disturbed by the memory.

"How come he was so easily corrupted?" Willow asked cautiously.

"When I originally created him, I placed all the dark magic from myself into him. I knew that in the final battle light alone will not defeat the darkness."

"So you were going to use black magic's against The First. That's not very hero like." Anya commented, receiving glares from the others that clearly said, "shut up", though most tended to agree.

"This is not a Disney movie," retorted Adam, obviously fairly annoyed at being told how to fight his own battles. "I was hoping the two of us could stand united against the shadow. He would represent the darkness and I the light. Dark magic is useful if you know how to control it. What they did was force their way in and fill his soul with darkness. Even I wouldn't be able to resist the torrent of darkness they forced into him...I...couldn't get to him in time."

He lowered his head in sadness, clearly holding back the sorrow and guilt at believing it was his fault that his brother befell such a fate. Tara got up from her seat beside Willow, walked over to him and gave him a comforting hug.

It wasn't clear who was more surprised by her actions, the Scoobies or Tara.

"Thank you." he smiled, easing out of her embrace.

"What are we going to do about James and Glory?" Willow asked obviously a little jealous of having her lover hugging someone else, especially when she was normally very shy.

"Glory, I'm afraid, is a problem you will have to solve by yourselves," he stated standing, again the image of authority and power. All the weakness from mere moments ago vanished as if it never happened "I will take care of James. He has plagued me long enough. He will not destroy what I have spent lifetimes protecting," he spoke more to himself than to the others.

He turned, beginning to leave.

"I'll help." Tara spoke up quickly astonishing everyone.

"You can not help me." he said, stopping and half turning to face her. He did not say it as though she was helpless but simply she could not physically help. "I must do this alone."

"Then I will be there for moral support." she said defiantly. The others were wondering what had gotten into her lately. She somehow just felt a lot more safe and confident around The Guardian.

"As you wish," he smiled. "But you will have to return before the actual fight."

"Ok." she smiled, accepting this partial victory.

"Tara." Willow spoke up, increasingly concerned about Tara's actions of late. "Don't go...we need you...I need you."

"I can return her before she is even missed." Adam stated.

"I'll be back soon," Tara said to a slightly tearful Willow, before kissing her and following Adam, who was waiting in the doorway.

"You two stay with them," he said, turning to the animals. "Help in any way you can." both seemed to nod.

Adam held his hand out to her, tentatively placing hers in his they walked through the door.

* * *

Upon stepping through she discovered that they were standing in the hallway of the Guardian's mansion.

"How...how did you do that?" she stuttered out of shock.

"I only use a car if I have to, although it is a refreshing change sometimes. I usually just transport myself between two places, if I have enough power that is." He proceeded up the stairs, pausing slightly in front of the painting of the lady, before continuing up the rest of the flight with Tara on his heels.

After four flights of stairs, they reached a set of double doors which were open to what appeared to be a study or office. Closing the doors, Adam then reopened them to reveal the room full of hand weapons that the Scoobies had seen earlier.

He proceeded to the door at the other end of the room, which was obviously unlocked this time, though Tara suspected that it had also been unlocked when they had tried to get through, it just hadn't permitted them access.

The room they opened was rather bare. It looked like a cross between a cathedral and a meditation chamber. Along each side of the room were stone pillars heading up to a very high ceiling. On the walls on each side of here were stained glass windows all at least eight meters tall, shinning coloured light down on the centre of the floor.

The centre of the floor was covered in a cream carpet which closely resembled a large crash mat. At the end was what appeared to be an altar, above which was another stained glass window, this time containing an image of a golden eye. On the altar was a gold object in the form of symbol Tara recognized as being called the Ankh, an early form of the Christian Cross created by the Egyptians and used as a religious icon to represent Physical and Eternal Life and later adapted and used by Christians as a holy sign. In the centre of this symbol, across the cross beam, was another image of the eye.

Tara also knew that both the image of the Ankh and The Eye were symbols of The-Powers-That-Be, The Ankh represented The Powers in General, whereas the Golden Eye, 'The All Seeing Eye', 'The Eye Of The Gods', showed that a person or place had earned the favour of the Powers or had been chosen by them.

Adam moved into the middle of the room and sat down and crossed his legs. Tara could now see that the carpet had the symbol of the Ankh on it as well. Adam had placed himself right on the crossbar of the symbol. She tentatively approached and sat down beside him, not crossing her legs as she was wearing a skirt.

Adam began to chant quietly in a language Tara didn't recognize. The room began to cloud as mist rose from the floor and surrounded them, slowly swirling around the pair.

In a matter of seconds the mist withdrew and all Tara could see was that they were surrounded by lights of every colour which weaved, swirled and streamed around them in every direction.

"Wow."

* * *

_Dimension:165 – Earth – Sub Reality_

_Date:19__th __July 2001 AD_

_Country:USA – California_

_Location:Sunnydale – The Guardians Mansion – The Meditation Chamber_

_Time:Afternoon_

"Wow." she gasped as she rose to her feet.

"We are in another level of reality. From here I can see even a slight disturbance in the fabric of reality. At the moment we are seeing everything, people, demons, nature, magic, everything."

He closed his eyes briefly and the colours changed to black and white, with small patches of other colours, mainly grey, blue, purple and green light.

"We are now seeing the all the beings. Normal humans show up as grey, black or white depending on how good or evil they are."

Tara was relieved to see that most was a light grey, with only a few darker and lighter patches.

"The green is either natural magic or neutral man or other mortal created magic. Blue is light magic and purple is dark magic."

He stood and walked around one patch of grey light which was darker than most. He looked intently at the area, focusing the image. It expanded and Tara could see she was standing in a smoky colour map of Sunnydale.

"That is the Magic Box," he stated, pointing to an area of bright colour. Upon closer inspection, she could see the outlines of the Scoobies glowing in different colours, though she didn't see what she expected.

"Why is Buffy flashing purple and blue?" Tara asked.

"Because her Slayer power is demon based. The blue is the personality, just like Giles and Anya. They have been dark, a demon and Ripper, but now they are good."

"But why does Willow show purple, blue, black and white and why does Dawn show green white and grey? And why are they all brighter than Xander?" Tara asked getting slightly worried as she pointed at the moving figure of Willow, who was very bright in comparison to the others.

"It also shows what will happen in the future." he said sadly.

"What do you mean?" Tara asked, turning to him.

"I can't tell you. What I can tell you that Dawn is NOT the best behaved teenager in the world, but she never goes dark, which is the reason why she is only slightly black and the green is because she is The Key."

He quickly moved to answering the other question, deliberately ignoring Willows purple highlights.

"The brightness represents the power levels." The map misted then reformed showing the two of them in the room they were currently in. Tara was still worried by the colour and brightness of the Willow image as the purple was a lot brighter than the blue, but the new image in front of her distracted her line of thought.

The image of them was breathtaking. The figure of Tara was as bright a white as Buffy, Willow and Dawn, but she showed more blue than Willow, which confused Tara further. She was nowhere near as powerful as Willow.

Her figure was also fluctuating between all the colours, which made her take a breath in shock; she would never do anything dark. When she looked at the Adam figure it was staggering. While Tara's model was fairly bright, his was so bright she couldn't even see the colour even when she shielded her eyes.

The image moved again to the original swirl of colours, and Adam closed his eyes. If Tara didn't know better she would have thought he was studying the back of his eyelids and seemed to squint. The colours around them swirled and flew past. Adam was obviously searching. The colours blurred into shades of black and purple.

"There." he said opening his eyes and studying the cloud before them.

"He has found a way to block his signature, but that's him. With that amount of dark magic's, it has to be. He appears to be in another dimension. That would account for some of the blurring."

He waved his hand once over the cloud and it cleared to reveal an island.

"Yes, he's in another dimension, twenty two days and five hours ahead of this one. He's done that deliberately to annoy me. He knows how much I hate portals, particularly dimension and temporal portals." Tara could tell he really was annoyed about this.

"I'll snap in to avoid giving him the satisfaction. It takes up more energy, but it's worth it." he turned to Tara. "It's time for you to go. I can't risk you getting hurt. I will return you when we left."

"You can do that?" Tara asked.

"That's why some have gifted me the title of Time Lord." he said with a slight smile

"Like Doctor Who?"

Adam gave an annoyed sigh. She must have said something wrong.

"The characters name is 'The Doctor'," he corrected. "The 'who' is a question, so it's Doctor Who? Not Doctor Who. But yes, like The Doctor, although I'm real and not an alien with only have one heart."

He turned away from her, raised his arm and moved it in an arc, creating an arch of white stone in the shape of a door; a doorway filled with white light.

He gestured towards the arch.

Tara stepped up to it.

"Goodbye and good luck...Time Lord." she added with a smile.

"I'm going to regret telling you that, aren't I?" he said though his look clearly said. "Not another one."

She laughed and stepped through the arch.


	8. CH8 Death Is Your Gift

Chapter 8 – Death Is Your Gift

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:24__th__ July 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – England – Surrey_

_Location:Pivet Drive – Little Whinging_

_Time:Evening_

She had been watching her master get worse and worse.

He was no longer even conscious; he just twisted around, shaking and shivering under the sheets of his bed.

What made it worse was that he had not eaten in days, she was not much better but a few wandering ants that had come in through a small gap in the window sill and a couple of spiders had at least taken the edge of her hunger, he on the other hand didn't even have any fat reserves to draw on.

She knew she couldn't call out as the fat man would hurt her master.

He needed help and soon.

* * *

_Dimension:165 – Earth_

_Date:19__th __July 2001 AD_

_Country:USA – California_

_Location:Sunnydale – The Magic Box_

_Time:Afternoon_

She stepped through the arch and appeared in the doorway of The Magic Box. The others were standing exactly where they were before she left.

_He really returned me exactly where I left._

"How did you do that?" Buffy asked, confused. "And where did Adam go?"

Tara turned to find the arch gone.

There was a small clicking sound and a piece of paper appeared in the air and fluttered down into Tara's hands. It read:

_I told you I would return you before you were missed. Wish me luck._

_Time Lord_

Tara smiled at the message and could tell that although it was serious it was written with a smile. She handed it to Buffy who had approached and had tried to read over her elbow (she couldn't reach her shoulder).

"What happened Tara?" asked Willow.

_This is going to take some explaining_

* * *

Back at the house.

After Tara had stepped through the arch, he closed it with a wave of his hand. The Guardian took a deep breath, not for the need to but simply in preparation for what he was about to face, and walked into the middle of the cloud of dark magic; he snapped his fingers and vanished.

* * *

_Dimension:294 – Earth_

_Date:10__th __August2001 AD_

_Country:Indian Ocean_

_Location:A Small Island_

_Time:Evening_

A small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean

This island would never appear on any maps. This island is only visible if you know it's there.

The Guardian flashed into existence on the top of a hill.

He looked around, surveying the environment. He was standing very near what looked like a worn down shed, the type that's size means it's halfway to being an aircraft hangar, it was probably at least twenty meters square.

He walked toward the shed and opened the door.

It creaked open allowing him admittance.

Once inside the door slammed shut, but this didn't surprise Adam in the slightest.

On the far side of the shed stood James wearing an evil grin.

"Here he is, the Gods beloved Guardian, come like an avenging Angel to slay the Demon." he taunted.

"I always hoped the demon wouldn't be you, brother." Adam said, moving to face him.

"You know I'm a lost cause, right? You will never get me back."

"Who says I want to, brother." Adam said almost growling the last word as he walked towards his opposite.

"Well, it looks like you've finally grown yourself a new spine. You lost your old one many years ago."

"I do only what I'm meant to do."

"Oh, leave out the great mission bit. We both know you hate the Gods as much as I do. I've just got a better way of showing it." he mocked.

"My beliefs are not your concern." Adam said, coming to a halt ten meters from his brother.

"You know we could have a really long discussion about religion, but I think we should get this party started," James said with a large amount of pleasure. He snapped his fingers; the room around them was suddenly full of demons.

Adam looked around; at least thirty surrounded him.

"Bugger."

"Indeed, brother." James agreed, gesturing the demons forward.

They launched themselves at The Guardian. Adam drew his sword, which was again glowing. The demons visibly flinched when they saw the blade, but obviously thought he was no match for their numbers as they kept approaching.

He launched himself at them, cutting and slicing every demon that came within range. He eliminated his foe with skill even a Samurai could not match. The ranks of demons continued to charge and the bodies continued to pile up. The Guardian, who had not suffered more than slightest cut, was surrounded by carcasses.

Eventually all the demons were killed and the bodies were almost literally ceiling high around him. With a blast of light from his body, the corpses were flung across the room.

"Is that all you've got, James?" Adam mocked, breathing heavily.

James threw his head back and laughed. "Oh, I'm just getting started." He clicked his fingers again. This time the air around them shimmered and more demons appeared, only five this time.

These were tall, reptilian looking; they had slightly elongated necks with various horns pointing backwards on their heads. They had wings and long tails with a single large curved spike on the end. They also had metal armour that appeared to me moulded to their body on their chest, arms and legs. In their chest armour were two slots holding daggers, each being at least fifty centimetres long. They had talons not hands, each talon being at least ten centimetres long.

"Batros!" Adam hissed.

"Yes...Batros. They can be very useful, and as I know how much you love them, I thought I'd bring a few with me." James sneered.

The Batros launched themselves at The Guardian, unlike the other demons these moved like animals, springing and bounding, launching themselves off the walls and ceiling.

These were harder to kill and Adam sustained many injuries and spent much time trying to prevent being out flanked.

It took him ten minutes to gain the advantage by plunging his sword through the chest of one, and soon their bodies also laid dead at his feet.

He had obviously been seriously injured as he was bent over holding his left arm to his chest, while the right held his sword which showed no sign of the slaughter it had caused. Adam had cuts on his face from the demons talons and tail slashes.

"You think that's all it takes to beat me." said Adam, breathing heavier than before as he sheathed his sword.

James laughed.

"You're like a toothless old cat brother, trying to scare me with your roar."

"This old cat isn't as toothless as you think." said Adam, straightening up with great effort he sheaved his sword before clasping his hands behind his back, the image of a gentleman.

Anyone standing behind him would have seen that in his right hand a shaft of metal appeared and started growing in his fist, it twisted and curved into the form of a scythe with the most vicious blade edge you had ever seen. The blade and the handle were covered in runes (which like his sword moved, twirled and re-wrote themselves) while the handle was pure black and the blade was of the brightest silver.

This was not the type of tool you used for collecting the harvest, and definitely not the sort of weapon you want to be on the wrong end of.

"Come on brother, it ends tonight." Adam stated as the last hint of day fell below the horizon.

Both launched themselves at each other in exactly parallel movements. Adam brought his scythe around only to have it collide with another scythe held by his brother. This scythe was pure black, including the blade; it was also covered in runes, but they were applied with a less skilled hand and they seemed to almost lumber or crawl over the surface.

The weapons clashed, slashed and sliced. Parries were blocked, thrusts were dodged and attacks were countered. It looked like a scene from an epic battle, they were moving so fast it should not have been possible. It was the clash of the titans, blades rung, bodies moved at an incredible rate, every section of the shed was covered they were moving so fast.

Finally the weapons stopped, the scythes were entangled in the air between them and the warriors just stood forcing as much strength as they could into the blades.

"You can't win brother. Give up," James sneered. He was clearly in a worse position to his brother, having sustained direct hits to the torso, the arm and face, while his brother had only been nicked in the shoulder, but added to his wounds from the previous fights, he was struggling. He was almost out of power. "My years of training and researching the dark arts have prepared me for this."

In a flash movement Adam released the pressure on the blade, disentangled it and brought his blade down, sliced the opposing blade in half. A series of rapid hits caught his brother's legs, torso and severed all fingers on his right hand as well as inflicting a deep wound which cut through his right eyebrow and down his cheek only just missing his eye. James collapsed to the floor and clutched his fingerless hand.

"Darkness can not defeat the light, James. You of all people should know that by now." Adam countered with so much truth in his voice that you would belief it even if you had been taught otherwise since the day you were born.

Adam raised the scythe above his head ready to end it once and for all, he moved to bring it down but stopped, his eyes portrayed an inner struggle.

His brother sensed his hesitation and decided to act on his brother's indecision. "Even if the darkness can not win, if the light can not defeat the darkness, then we will still triumph." James decided to play his last card. "You made a fatal mistake brother." He grinned. "You left your precious charges unguarded."

Adam froze, his eyes snapping to James's.

"What have you done brother?"

James just grinned.

Adam opened his mind, focusing on Sunnydale.

Flashes of the time he missed...Pain...Willow...Buffy...the vampire Spike...Dawn...Joyce.

...Joyce is...dead

...By the Gods...Tara

...Tara's mind

...Tara

.…Tara

By The Gods...I've failed them.

He focused, bringing his mind to the present.

He saw...

* * *

_Dimension:165 – Earth_

_Date:10__th __August2001 AD_

_Country:USA – California_

_Location:Sunnydale – Glory's Tower_

_Time:Evening_

Buffy and Dawn stood at the top of a tower.

"Buffy...no," Dawn pleaded.

"Dawnie, I have to."

"No," Dawn repeated, raising her voice.

"Listen to me please. There is not a lot of time. Listen."

* * *

Glorificus

"What have I done?"

"Yes indeed...and thanks to that fight you haven't got the energy to 'snap in' or to open a time portal, but you probably have just enough energy to open a dimension portal, it just depends on how fast you can fly." James grinned.

Adam swung his scythe up again, but stopped; the inner struggle evident on his face. He surrendered, lowering the scythe.

"You can't do it brother. You can't kill me. You're WEAK", James taunted, standing slowly. "That is why you lost her."

Fury erupted on Adam's face.

A flaming knife appeared in the air between them and embedded itself in James's shoulder. The fire spreading over his skin. James screamed in pain.

Adam sent a look of pure revulsion at his brother before beginning to spin; he got faster beginning to spin at beyond human speeds, the air around him moved with as well. He transformed into a tornado which blasted through the roof and rocketed of faster than the eye can see over the Indian Ocean.

* * *

"I love you...I will always love you. This is the work I have to do..."

* * *

As the tornado, Adam was using all his might to move as fast as he could, holding his hand out in front of him, about a mile ahead a portal to the Scoobies' dimension opened. He reached and passed through it in under a second. He was going too fast and the dimension barriers were torn apart as he passed through.

* * *

"Tell Giles...tell Giles I figured it out...and...I'm ok...and give my love to my friends. You have to take care of them now...you have to take care of each other...you have to be strong..."

* * *

Increasing in speed The Guardian switched from tornado to straight out flying as he moved over the far coast of Africa. He shed his physical form continuing only as a ball of energy. He was moving so fast he looked like a blazing comet, with a tail of magical flame over a mile long.

* * *

"Dawn, the hardest thing in this world is to live in it...be brave...live...for me."

She turned and ran for the edge.

* * *

Passing over the Central Atlantic, he broke the speed of reality, creating a subspace tear hundreds of miles in length, leaving its mark as a black flame that scorched the sky.

_She can not die; she can not die._

* * *

She reached the edge and jumped.

In the distance a roaring could be heard, getting louder by the second.

She fell, three meters till the portal.

The sound got louder and a dot appeared on the horizon.

Two meters

The dot became a flicker.

One meter

The black flame roared over the border of Sunnydale.

She fell into the portal at the same time as Adam hit it, the force of the impact forced Adam back into his physical form, the flaming trail vanished leaving huge spatial damage in its wake.

Buffy and The Guardian hung in the portal, convulsing in pain.

The portal closed.

Dawn flooded over the horizon.

The Scoobies, Spike and the animals all made their way towards the bodies of Buffy and Adam lying mangled on the ground.

Willow cried, comforted in Tara's arms.

Xander and Anya just stared in shock and sadness.

Spike collapsed to the floor in sorrow.

Giles looked on in disbelief.

Buffy...his Slayer...was no more.

The Animals limped up to their master, their heads dipped in despair. Mystique curled up and rested her cat head on his chest. Lylacor lay down beside The Guardian, laying his paw and head onto his shoulder.

They made no sound.

No howl

No whimper

No calling

Just...silence.


	9. CH9 Timely Rescue

Chapter 9 – Timely Rescue

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:25__th__ July 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – England – Surrey_

_Location:Pivet Drive – Little Whinging_

_Time:After Midnight_

In another dimension, in the continent of Europe, on the Island of Britain in a quiet town called Little Whinging.

At the end of a street called Pivet Drive, three figures could be seen creeping slowly along a hedgerow, counting houses as they went.

They were surrounded by long black cloaks that obscured their features from any one that may have been watching.

The first figure found the house they were looking for and gestured to the others to follow.

They moved quietly into the garden and listened for the sound of the concealed sleeping guard.

Hearing the snore, the third figure moved to the source of the sound before aiming a stick of wood at the concealed person.

The figure muttered a word at the guard before rejoined the other two.

As a group they crept around a large car and up to the front door of number 4 Pivet Drive.

The first figure looked at the lock and then gestured one of the others forward.

Once at the door one of the figures pointed another stick at the lock and muttered something.

The door gently swung open and the three crept inside, quickly they slinked their way up the stairs, muttering silencing charms at each step encase the stairs squeaked.

Upon reaching the landing they examined the doors, four were perfectly normal white paint, whereas the last was dirtier and the paint was pealing through neglect. The bottom of said door held a cat flap as well as several locks.

The second intruder nodded to the door in question and the first nodded in agreement, before gesturing the third figure towards the other doors.

The figure approached the door and released the locks as they had done with the front door, muttering silencing charms on them before unlocking them.

Small flashes of light came from two of the other rooms as three of the inhabitants of the house were stunned.

The first figure moved forward and opened the last door slowly; pausing when it creaked to cast another silencer out of habit.

The figure examined the room; it was a shambles it looked as if some one had dropped a bomb.

There was school books littering the floor, quills and parchment scattered around a broken gas lamp that looked like it had been knocked off a shelf, on the sill a white owl sat inside of a very dirty cage looking far too thin to be able to do any sort of flying. Deep groves had been cut in the bars around the lock where the bird had tried to break free.

Several bits of Muggle attire drooped untidily over the edge of a rickety old chair, while the owner of said garment lay unmoving on a poor excuse for a bed.

The first figure rushed to the boy while the second checked the room was secure.

The figure shook the sleeping wizard; he did not wake, pealing back the sheets revealed an appalling sight.

The boy was as thin as a rake with all his ribs showing, he was shivering, yet he was sweating heavily and had a massive temperature, added to that he had enough bruises on him to last him a life time, he was mumbling in his fever though the intruders couldn't tell what about.

The second figure joined the first at the bed, while the third having returned from the other rooms and a quick search of the house, moved to stand in the doorway, with their wand out, just in case.

"I found his trunk my lady, I left it by the front door."

The first figure nodded before turning to the second waiting for his diagnosis.

"He is very ill my Lady, Wizard Flu I would guess, he also appears to have been very badly beaten, we should remove him at once, he needs medical attention."

The first figure nodded, returning her attention to the shivering boy, while the other two quickly picked up the bird cage, containing a now very relieved looking owl and shrunk anything of the boys things in the room so that they fitted into their pockets.

The first figure brushed an elegant hand over the boy's forehead.

"Don't vorry Arry, I vill take care of you."


	10. CH10 Course Of Action

Chapter 10 – Course Of Action

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:24__th__ July 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – London_

_Location:12 Grimmauld Place - Kitchen_

_Time:Morning_

Earlier that day at Order Headquarters

"What do you mean no one's seen Harry?" demanded Remus.

"The guards and Arabella haven't seen him at his window since he arrived," explained the aging headmaster "Nor has she seen him in any of the other windows or in the front or back gardens, she also has not heard any shouting which is apparently quite a common occurrence when Harry is there."

"Let's go." said Tonks as she, Remus, the Weasley's and Fleur all jumped to their feet and moved towards the door.

"Stop." demanded Dumbledore "We must be patient, as far as we know Harry might just be lying on his bed, grieving over Sirius."

"Or Arry might ave been kidnapped by Death Eaters." countered Fleur angrily "They could be torturing im az ve speak."

Some of the room's occupants were now looking seriously worried; the thought of Harry being tortured was not a pleasant one.

It had been a surprise to many that Fleur had taken such an interest in Harry. Since she had left Hogwarts at the end of the Tournament she had started learning everything she could about Harry James Potter, his likes and dislikes, his love of Quidditch and his hatred of Severus Snape, Draco Malfoy and the English Minister of Magic.

Fleur had just broken up on good terms with Bill Weasley, they had both realised that while they liked each other very much they did not believe that they had a future together, though they were still colleagues and good friends.

Though not an actual member of the Order, she had been assisting them in attempting to spur the French Ministry of Magic to act, she had returned to Grimmauld Place to tell the Order that her father who had a lot of influence in the French Ministry was now being viewed as potentially the next French Minister of Magic, while there she was invited to the meeting which had led her to this argument.

"It has only been three and a half days Miss Delacour," replied the Headmaster calmly "It makes sense that he is mourning, he did the same thing for the last few days of school and he may be doing the same thing now, if after five days we do not see him; we will go in and investigate."

"Vive days may be too late!" she argued her French accent growing stronger as she spoke faster "He zaved my zister in the lake, he did not vait to zee if I arrived, if he had not taken her then, she vould ave been left down vere wiv thoze beastz."

"Miss Delacour I have apologised many times, if I had known about the hostile relationships between the Veela and Merpeople I would never have put either of you in that situation, but that is the past. We need to prepare to move in if Harry does need our help, Remus, Kingsley, Tonks if by Sunday we have not heard anything then you will go in and retrieve him. If that is all, meeting closed."

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:25__th__ July 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:Morning_

Comtesse (Countess) Delacour walked quickly up the flight of stairs in the chateau, her eldest and two of the servants had brought the boy back and from what the servants had told her, he did not look good.

Flinging open the doors to his room she marched to the bed where her daughter was sitting looking worried.

"What did the doctor have to say?" she asked in French.

"He has Wizard-Flu, a very bad strain," her daughter replied in her native tongue "It also appears that he was very badly beaten to the extent that he had a broken arm and a cracked skull, he also has burns to his right arm and hand, though we do not know how he got those. Added to that he does not appeared to have eaten anything since he left Hogwarts, and what fat and muscle he did have has been destroyed by the flu, we are lucky that the cuts and burns did not become infected or that we did not wait until Dumbledore had said or he would certainly be dead."

"He is very fortunate to have you watching over him dear." smiled Comtesse Delacour.

"He saved Gabrielle's life in that lake mother, if he had not rescued her I dread to think what those awful Merpeople would have done."

"Yes, we do indeed owe this boy a lot."

"He is not a boy," corrected Fleur sliding her hand down his cheek "He is a man."

Comtesse Delacour smiled at the comment; she knew her daughter very well and could recognise her fondness for this young wizard.

"How long before he recovers?"

"The Heeler said four or five days until he properly regains consciousness, after that he needs to be eating as much as possible to build his body up again."

"He doesn't look like he had much of one anyway." commented her mother.

"When I last saw him he was a little short for his age, malnourished and underweight, I was wondering how on earth he still managed to live with that small form, now he looks ten times worse and he is still hanging on."

"If all the tales about him are true it would certainly mean that he is an incredible boy...man."

"Yes, but only a few people seem to realise it, I do not believe Dumbledore can be trusted to keep him safe anymore, we mustn't tell him that he is staying with us, if he knows he will try to get him back and we can not allow that."

"Your father and I trust your judgement dear, and from the look of him and what you have told us about his life I would hasten to agree...he is under our protection now."

They stood in silence for several minutes.

"It's the English food you know," announced Fleur "I knew it was bad for you, he looked as if you could push him over with a feather during the Tournament."

Comtesse Delacour smiled and replied to her daughter's random comment.

"Well my dear, once he is healthy again it will be your job to introduce him to real food, he is in your charge, take care of him."

With that Lady Delacour walked out leaving her eldest staring at the youth in the bed.


	11. CH11 Rescued By An Angel

Chapter 11 – Rescued By An Angel

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:27th July 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:Morning_

Harry Potter very slowly opened his eyes; the slight temperature he retained brought back the memories of his return to Pivet Drive.

Dumbledore had decided that he would be returning to the Dursley's again, to give him a chance to mourn before school started up again, it was stupid really, no one can get over a persons death in just six weeks, at least not without counselling or people to talk or mourn with.

When he had returned via the train, the compartments only population having been a very quite Harry and a heavy contingent of Order members, all of whom didn't really know what to say (Ron, Hermione and the others had been delivered home via other means for safety), Vernon was most put out that he should have to come out to get him yet again and just got redder after the Order members had threatened him.

As soon as he returned he had been locked in his room, Vernon had shouted at him about the threats he received from the Order and had then decided that he needed to be taught a lesson, ie: being locked in his room and not being fed.

But that was not all, Vernon decide that physical punishment would also be a good idea, though Dudley loved it just for the fun of it, he had been tortured more in that one evening than he had in the rest of his life, the Cruciatus Curse did not seem so bad anymore, he had been punched, kicked, burned against a gas lamp, he was just fortunate neither of them thought about knives or cricket bats.

It was that evening that he started feeling groggy, or rather more groggy than he had felt after Vernon and 'Dudders' had finished with him. He had been about to write a letter to Dumbledore about what happened when he had come over very dizzy, he crashed to the floor sending his quills and parchment flying, luckily he missed the still very hot lamp that lay broken on the floor.

He managed to reach the bed before collapsing, he had attempted to look up Wizarding illnesses in his books but he could not concentrate and he kept dropping the books as the pain increased, it reached unbearable levels causing him to pass out. He stayed like that for how long he knew not, the pain made him loose all sense of time; he just laid there fading in and out of consciousness.

The last thing he remembered was hearing a beautiful voice reassuring him, he did not know who it was, but he was certain that it was familiar; he also remembered a vague image of a woman under a cloak, her face was beautiful beyond compare, truly angelic.

Looking up he saw, not the familiar drab sealing of Dudley's second room, but an exotic set of red bed curtains.

Turning to his left he saw that he was in a room. It was large, brightly decorated in reds and gold's, there was a window through which sunlight was pouring, bathing the other half of the room in light.

The bright light was quiet painful to his eyes, he attempted to bring his right arm up to cover them, only to discover that it was pinned down by some unknown weight, he wondered why on earth the burns to his right arm and hand were not screaming at him as they had been or why he was not aching from all the bruises that he should have from the beating.

He slowly turned to his right and almost jumped out of bed at the sight that greeted him.

Fleur Delacour, the Beauxbatons champion was curled up next to him, dressed in a set of creased silver robes, using his arm as a pillow, which was probably (other than his very weak state) the only thing that prevented him from leaping backwards.

She stirred at the slight movement and slowly opened her deep blue eyes.

She looked at him then sat up in astonishment, before engulfing him in a hug which he weakly returned.

"It iz not pozzible, you should not be conscious for another zeventy two ours at ze least." she exclaimed into his neck.

"It is nice to see you too Fleur." He responded sarcastically though very weakly and even more shocked that she was hugging him.

She sat up, her eyes glistening with the threat of tears.

"I'm zorry Arry, it iz juzt, that given vhat you looked like ven we brought you in ve didn't think vat you would even be conzcious for another vour days, let alone be avake and speaking."

"Where am I?"

"The Zouth of France, The Chateau Delacour, my ome." She explained, wiping the hints of tears from her eyes.

"How did I get here?" he asked.

"Ve brought you back ere after Dumbledore refuzed to let us come to ze if you vere alright. It vas lucky ve did, if ve had vated for Dumbledore you vould be dead."

Harry's face looked blank for several seconds before he responded.

"Well, I guess I owe you my thanks then."

"You owe me nothing Arry, I vill explain everything later, I must tell my parents vat you ave come around."

With that she pecked him on the cheek before quickly walked out the door with a slight spring in her step. Leaving a slightly dazzled Harry touching the place on his face where she had just kissed.

Unfortunately his weakened state rushed him back to sleep before he could think much about his current situation.


	12. CH12 Got To Go

Chapter 12 – Got To Go

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:28th July 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:Morning_

The next day Harry was feeling significantly better, he was no long in as much pain, he was able to move more than an inch before feeling exhausted and having to sleep for the rest of the day.

And so it was that when Fleur awoke the next day she discovered that far from lying next to Harry on the bed, she was now in the centre of the bed covered by his sheets.

Rolling over and surveying the room she saw that the bathroom door was slightly open; getting out of bed she gracefully stood and walked towards the bathroom door.

Poking her head inside she saw Harry leaning heavily against the mirror, looking fairly out of breath, his hair was wet from the shower and he had a towel tied around his waste, showing his very prominent ribs.

"Arry?" she asked worriedly, moving to his side and ducking under his arm so that he could use her for support.

"Thank you," he panted "I woke up this morning and realised that I had not showered in several days, I didn't want to wake you so I quietly came in here and showered….it took a little bit more out of me than I expected."

"I am not zurprzed Arry." replied Fleur helping him back through the door and back to the bed "You nearly died in vat poor excuse for a bedroom."

"Trust me," he said dropping back onto the edge of the mattress "It is better than the cupboard under the stairs, it gave me a place to retreat to after doing the housework."

"Ve vhat!" exclaimed Fleur straightening up and looking at him intently "You….you vere living in….in a cupboard?"

"Yeah, up until my second year when they put me in Dudley's second bedroom, I still had to do all the chores though."

"Iz zecond bedro….!" she exclaimed, shock clearly evident on her face "Excuze me Arry, I need to talk to my mother."

With that she turned around and literally stormed out of the room.

* * *

Dimitri and Delphine Delacour were sitting in the main sitting room of Chateau Delacour looking at the days political and financial reports when their eldest child almost blasted the doors in.

"Merlin Fleur," exclaimed Dimitri "What ever is the matter?"

One thing Delphine knew was that her daughter, like herself, very rarely got angry for any reason, so this had to be something pretty extreme.

"Those filthy Muggle relatives of Harry's, not only do they lock him in a room and leave him to die of starvation after beating him black and blue but for the first eleven years of his life they had him locked under the stairs in a cupboard and made him slave away doing house work, while their son got a second bedroom."

"What!" boomed Dimitri jumping to his feet "That despicable!"

"I want to start legal proceedings against them immediately." demanded Fleur.

"I will take care of it." answered her father looking more serious than he had in years.

With that Fleur turned on her heals and went straight back up to Harry's room.

Delphine looked at her husband.

"How can anyone treat a child so cruelly?"

"I do not know my love, but rest assured that when I have finished with them they will regret ever being born." his very tone made Delphine shudder.

With that he turned and marched towards the fireplace, shouted the address of the French Ministry of Magic and disappeared in a flash of green flame.

Delphine Delacour sat herself back down.

The boy upstairs had been through all of that and still he turned into enough of a gentlemen as to rescue a girl he did not even know from Merpeople, which as far as he knew were not even a serious threat. Added to that the rumours she had heard that it had been him who had sent up the red sparks in the 3rd Task of The Triwizard Tournament that got her daughter out of the maze.

She would defiantly have to meet this boy soon.

* * *

When Fleur returned to the room, she found Harry in the process of donning a pair of black trousers that had been left beside his bed for when he eventually got up.

"Vhat on Earth do you vink you are doing?" she demanded.

"Getting up." he answered weakly, sounding almost mechanical as he did up the button and moved to pick up the shirt.

"No no no no no," said Fleur taking the shirt and attempting to push him back on to the bed "You are var too weak, you need to rest."

"Need to get up." he replied as if he was following a set of instructions "Need to get back to the Dursley's."

"You vhat!" she shouted in astonishment standing back.

"Please, not so loud." pleaded Harry, covering his ears.

"You are never going back vere Arry," ordered Fleur completely ignoring his last comment. "Ow can you even vink about it."

"Dumbledore….said….be safe….Blood Protection." he replied as his body tried to drag him back to sleep.

"Arry, Dumbledore iz a fool, if ve had vaited to pull you out az he ad zugested, you vould be dead."

Harry did not stop and in fact kept trying to retrieve the shirt to little effect.

"Dumbledore told me to stay at Dursley's, must….do….as he…."

Harry's weakened state caused him to topple over, luckily Fleur managed to catch him and push him backwards onto the bed.

Fleur wastes no time in throwing his legs onto the bed, drawing her wand and attaching magical bonds to prevent his movement.

"Must….go…."

She leans over him her expression deadly serious.

"Now listen Arry, you are not going back to vat ouse EVER again, you vill stay in vis bed until I vink you are vell enough to get up….understood."

Harry didn't have time to respond as his body dragged him back into unconsciousness.

Fleur huffed in annoyance and went back to see her mother.

* * *

Delphine was still sitting thinking when her daughter stormed into the room for the second time, her Veela powers creating a slight breeze that to most others would have been intimidating.

"Why do I get the feeling that you have just heard something even worse from our young friend." said Delphine quietly.

"He wants to go back."

Silence reigned for several seconds before Delphine spoke again, not quite sure of what she has just heard.

"He what?"

"He wants to go back, back to those horrible Muggle's, all he keeps saying is that he's got to go back because Dumbledore said so and something about Blood Protections."

Delphine, having a slightly more pensive outlook on life, analysed what she had just heard.

"Do you believe he actually wants to go back?" she asked deep in thought.

"How can anyone want to go back to that?" asked Fleur, still a little hysterical, the wind around her getting stronger.

"Sit down Fleur, your powers are going to cause something to get damaged if you do not restrain yourself."

A vase containing flowers tumbled to the floor smashing onto the thick carpet.

"Never mind."

Fleur none the less sat.

"If he really does not want to go back, why is he doing it?" asked Fleur, completely confused by the whole situation.

"If he does not want to go back," Delphine explained "Then he either has so much trust in Dumbledore that he is willing to follow him blindly, which I can not believe from what I have heard about this boy and from what you have told me, which means that he must want to go back for some other reason," she turned to her daughter "Do you know anyone we can contact to ask about Harry that will not reveal his location."

Fleur sat thinking for a minute.

"Ginevra Weasley."

"William's sister?"

Delphine had been disappointed when Bill and her daughter broke up, he was a good wizard from an old family and would have taken good care of her, but at least the break-up was mutual and they are still good friends.

"Yes, she never really liked me while I was courting Bill, to the extent that she started calling me, I think it was 'phlegm,"

Delphine smiled, she always liked a girl with spirit.

"But I do know that Harry saved her life once and that she once had, and still may have, a crush on him; I think if I explain the situation to her she will not reveal his location."

"Ok," Agreed her mother "Send her a message, honesty is a good thing and from what William told me about her I would tend to agree with you."

Fleur rose quickly pecking her mother on the cheek and heading of to her room, her mother was always good with advice.


	13. CH13 Secrets Revealed

Chapter 13 – Secrets Revealed 

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:28th July 2001 AD_

_Country:England – Devon_

_Location:The Burrow_

_Time:Evening_

Ginny Weasley was sitting at her window staring at the stars, a few days ago her parents and eldest brothers had come back with news that Harry had not been seen and more importantly that Dumbledore was not going to look for him.

She had along with the rest of the Weasley clan had been decidedly unsettled ever since, her brothers had been seething with rage, her father was always looking distracted, her mother had both trying to distract herself by doing more housework than normal and Ginny herself had spent most of her time sitting thinking.

_What is Dumbledore thinking?_

_This is Harry for Merlin sake,_

_It's bad enough that they have to leave him with those relatives of his but when he goes missing it's..._

Her thought process was interrupting by a bird flying past her into her room, the shock sent her tumbling from the sill onto the floor.

Getting up grumpily and readjusting her nightgown she walked over to her bed where the bird had landed.

It was a dove, which Ginny though was strange for a start, she only new one family that used doves, but 'Phlegm' and her had never got on so why in Merlin's name would she send her a message.

Out pf curiosity she opened the letter.

_Ginevra_

_I know we have never got on very well, but I desperately need your help._

_As you may or may not know Harry has not been seen since his return to his relatives and Dumbledore has refused to send anyone to investigate yet._

_I want you to promise that you will not tell anyone what I am about to tell you, not even your youngest brother as we can not risk it leaking out._

_I have Harry, and before you ask no I am not the reason he has disappeared, after the meeting when the situation was discussed I decided that we could not wait, so I along with a couple of trusted others crept into his house and got him out._

_He had Wizard Flu and had been beaten black and blue by his relatives, if we had waited then he would be dead._

_Do not worry though as he is now healing and is in fact on his feet a lot sooner than expected._

_But the reason I am telling you this is because he wants to go back, I have tried to convince him otherwise but to no avail and is primarily only due to his lack of energy that I believe he is still here._

_He keeps saying that he must go back because it is what Dumbledore has told him to do, but some how I do not believe that Harry would blindly follow orders._

_Something is very wrong with him and I do not know what, I am hoping that you could help explain why he wants to go back to such cruelty._

_I know you do not like me, but please._

_Do it for Harry._

_The dove will wait for your reply._

_Fleur Delacour_

Ginny reread the letter twice, she was not sure if she should jump for joy or start crying, he was safe that was the main thing, but why on earth would he want to go back.

Turning to the bed she saw the dove sitting their patiently.

Sitting down on the bed she thought for several minutes before reaching into her draw for a quill and a piece of parchment.

* * *

"Fleur," said Dimitri "Please stop pacing dear; you will start to wear holes in the carpet."

Fleur didn't seem to hear her father's words; she had been frantically awaiting a reply ever since the dove had left for England.

Harry had got worse; he no longer responded to anything. Once he realised that he could not get back, his mind had literally closed in on itself.

"Fleur." tried her mother.

"Fleur!" said her father sharply causing both the women to jump.

Dimitri Delacour had never been a violent or aggressive man but it was also well known that if he got passionate about something he could turn very nasty.

"Sorry father, what did you say?"

Dimitri sighed

"Never mind."

"Fleur, please sit down," pleaded her mother "If you don't sit you will wear yourself out."

Fleur, in a very unusual way for her, threw herself down onto the sofa, only to begin fidgeting.

"Oh for Merlin sake dear, just sit still, the letter will not arrive any quicker and he's tied to the bed he can't go anywhere, so just…."

He was cut of by the dove flying back in and Fleur almost grabbing it out of the air.

She quickly untied the note and read.

_Fleur_

_It is such a relief, all of the family have been frantic about Harry as well and I am glad someone actually acted._

_About Harry's state, I believe that he has finally had enough; he usually always does what he thinks is right and normally end up saving the day in the process, but I think he may have finally been pushed too far._

_Ever since his birth people have decided what he is to do and where he is to go._

_Voldemort killed his parents, Dumbledore sent him to the Dursley's, Crouch Junior put his name in the cup, Voldemort manipulated his mind, the list goes on._

_I think that he has come to the misguided conclusion that whenever he does something that he isn't directly told to do, someone gets hurt._

_He led Hermione and Ron down to get the Philosopher's Stone and Ron got hurt._

_He gets confronted in Diagon Alley by the Malfoy's giving Lucius Malfoy the chance to slip Tom Riddles Diary in with my books which led to Hermione and the others being petrified and me being imprisoned in the Chamber of Secrets._

_He leads Ron and Lockhart down into the chamber and Lockhart got hurt and lost his memory._

_I don't know about his third year but he probably blames himself for letting Pettigrew escape, for getting Professor Lupin fired and Sirius still being called a criminal._

_In this forth year he blames himself for Cedric's death and for Voldemort's return._

_And in his fifth he blames himself for falling into the trap that got most of the DA that followed him injured in The Department Of Mysteries and his Godfather killed._

_Although the rest of us know none of this was his fault he doesn't feel the same and I think that he believes that if he just does what he is told regardless of the consequences to himself then he can't get anyone else hurt._

_I hope this helps._

_Please keep me informed._

_Ginny Weasley_

Fleur just stood rock still in the centre of the room, the letter fluttering to the floor.

She collapsed backwards onto the sofa, as her parents quickly read the letter.

"Oh Merlin." exclaimed Dimitri.

"Oh goodness." agreed Delphine "I can't even begin to imagine what he feels."

"We need to find someway to help him." stated Dimitri.

"Agreed, but how," asked Delphine "Any ideas Fleur….Fleur?"

Their daughter was sitting on the sofa with her head in her hands.

Delphine walked to the sofa and knelt down in front of her daughter.

"Dear?"

Fleur raised her head; tears were running down her cheeks.

"Oh Fleur." cried her mother, pulling her into a hug "It will be alright, we will find a way to help him."

"How….how?" she cried.

"I don't know, but we owe him Gabrielle's life, and possibly yours as well," she leant back and stared into her daughters eyes "We WILL help him."


	14. CH14 Healing

Chapter 14 – Healing

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:29th July 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:Evening_

Over the next hours the Delacour elders called up every contact they knew, but they couldn't find anything, anywhere.

They had searched their own library, The Archives of the French Ministry, the Public Wizard Library of Paris as well as every other major library they could think of.

They had searched for every and any conceivable related subject:

Healing the mind,

Cleansing the mind,

Opening the mind,

And every variation thereafter, there was absolutely nothing they could find or think off.

Except one.

"Are you sure this is the only way?" asked Delphine.

"Yes, I couldn't find anything else." answered Dimitri slowly.

"I don't like it; it could be very dangerous for both of them."

"Yes, but we have no other choice."

"No other choice about what?" asked Fleur as she walked into the room.

Since the letter had arrived she had not left Harry's side once, it was just typical that she had to come down the exact second that they were talking about this.

"We have discovered a way to help Harry." answered Delphine slowly.

"How?" demanded Fleur.

"Someone needs to go into his mind."

There was a stunned silence which was measured in microseconds before Fleur said.

"How do I do it?" resolve evident on her face.

"Dear, we don't even know if this will work, you will be performing highly advanced Legilimency." explained her father "It could make him worse….It could kill you both."

"How do I do it?" Fleur repeated.

* * *

A few minutes later Fleur and Delphine were gathered in Harry's room awaiting their guest.

"He looks so peaceful." commented Fleur stroking his forehead.

"Not necessarily a good sign." said a deep voice from behind them "It could indicate that he is comfortable where he is and therefore has no wish to return. The longer he is like that, the more likely he is to stay that way and if he does stay his body may die; you may have your work cut out for you."

"Viktor," cried Fleur in relief, rushing into the arms or the Bulgarian Quidditch Player as he and her father walked in "Thank goodness, I did not think I could stand more waiting."

"I did not know you spoke French Mr Krum." commented Delphine.

"I leant after the Tournament," he walked to the bed and looked down at Harry's prone form "It's ironic really, Dumbledore was the one who gave the speech that ensured that we kept in touch and that forced me to began doing additional training, training that will now save Harry's life, but that man almost sentenced Harry to death with those Muggle's."

He turned to the group, "Your father has brought me up to speed, have there been any further developments?"

"No." answered Delphine.

Krum nodded and turned to Fleur.

"What I am going to do is enter yours and Harry's mind and act as a causeway for you, allowing you to enter Harry's mind," he turned to Dimitri and Delphine "If at any time I extend my hands I am going to need you to take them because I require more magic, this is a highly complex procedure, I have never done anything this complicated before and I will need all the power I can get to make it work."

They nodded.

"Fleur I suggest you lay on the bed next to Harry as you will loose control of your body; I will warn you that apart from being able to see Harry's thoughts and memories, he may also be able to see yours and possibly you will both be able to see mine as my Occlumency shields may not hold under the strain, I will avoid looking at either of yours if I can."

Fleur moved to the bed and laid down next to Harry, taking his left hand in her right, Krum climbed onto the bed and sat cross legged at the end, drawing his wand he turned to Fleur.

"Ready?"

She nodded.

"Legilimens."

* * *

Fleur could not see anything, she was vaguely aware of another presence in her mind; presumably Viktor's.

Then suddenly she became aware of a third presence, less dominant than Krum's, but also stronger.

Guiding her thoughts towards it she felt Krum's mind fade into the background, allowing her a limited amount of privacy with Harry.

Closing in on the presence she pushed through a weak barrier and suddenly her senses came back to her, her sight and sound receptors became instantly overloaded as a bright sun combined with a roaring crowd appeared around her.

Before she had time to react a pair of objects dashed passed her in a flurry of movement.

As her senses managed to focus on the area around her, she discovered that she was in a Quidditch stadium, from the look of it probably the one at Hogwarts.

Seeing the four coloured banners confirmed it, it appeared to be a Slytherin versus Gryffindor match, she didn't understand Quidditch so had never bothered trying, and there were more pressing matters to attend to; like Harry….and the fact that she was hovering several hundred feet of the ground.

"It's a memory Fleur," Viktor's voice informed her "Anything is possible."

Fleur nodded, assuming that Krum could see what was going on even if she could not see him.

Looking around she saw the objects that had flown straight passed her, it was Harry, he was speeding after the gold ball that she could never remember the name of, beside him was another boy, he had blond hair and was wearing green robes, presumably the Slytherin Sneaker….or was it Speaker.

Anyway.

She kicked at the air to see if she could move and found that that didn't work, then realising that as it was a memory she would have to use her mind.

Willing herself forward, cautiously at first she began to move, gaining confidence she aimed herself at the pair and shot of towards them.

The pair were racing flat out over the crowd, the blonde attempting to bash Harry off his broom.

Fleur pulled out of a dive a few meters behind the pair and began attempting to catch them up. It was at times like this that she was glad that this was only a memory or the crowd could have seen under her dress.

After failing miserably for several minutes, she further realised that as she wasn't part of the memory she wasn't controlled by its laws, therefore she could catch up with him if she wanted.

She envisioned herself next to Harry and when she opened her eyes she was hovering next to him.

"Arry, you've got to leave ere, you've got to come back to us."

He did not respond.

"Arry, listen to me, if you stay in ere you may die."

"I deserve to die." he said quietly, which sounded very out of place as they were hurtling along at over one hundred miles an hour.

"You do not dezrve to die Arry, none of it waz your fault."

"Yes it was." he answered solemnly.

The scene around them changed, they were in a small stone building of some kind and a storm was raging outside. A snore to her left brought her attention to two people; one was a very fat boy lying on a sofa under a warm blanket.

And the other, lying on the floor under a moth eaten old sheet was a young Harry Potter; he looked if possible even scrawnier than he did when she first saw him.

He was similar in several ways, his untamed hair being just one, but there were also differences, this Harry didn't possess the same powerful aura as the current Harry did and he still seemed to have his innocence of life.

The alarm went of on the fat child's wrist watch and a loud thud echoed as something collided with the door.

"Where's the cannon?" asked the fat child stupidly as he jerked awake.

The door banged several more times before the hinges gave way.

"This is it," said a voice to her right "This is where it all went wrong."

"Vhat do you mean?" she asked the image of the older Harry.

"This was when I discovered that I was a wizard."

Looking back Fleur saw the large shape of the Hogwarts groundskeeper blocking the doorway.

"I should have said no, I should have stayed with the Dursley's, if I had done that then I would not have caused all that pain."

"It vas NOT your fault Arry." Fleur insisted moving in front of the smaller boy.

"No?" he asked as if he really didn't care.

The image changed to display a room with a black and white tiled floor, looking at the surroundings in greater detail showed that they were standing on a giant chess board.

I cry went up from their right as the White Queen flung her arm into who Fleur recognised as the youngest Weasley brother, the one who had asked her to the ball, she had always admired his courage, he was the only person other then Roger Davies who actually had the guts to ask.

The Queen dragged the boy of the chess board and flung him to the side.

The image changed again, the Hogwarts hospital wing, Harry's female friend Hermione was laying deadly still on a bed with both Ron and Harry at her side.

The image changed again showing Ginny Weasley lying perfectly still in a stone cave under the watchful gaze of a stone statue and a Slytherin Prefect.

The images were changing so fast she could barely register them all, but she was also aware that every time the image changed she knew of the memories leading up to the event.

She saw the History Class where he had learnt about the Chamber of Secrets, the battle to reach the Philosophers Stone, the mystery of the Grim that turned out to be Harry's Godfather Sirius.

And last but not least the memories of the Triwizard Cup and of The Department of Mysteries where he lost a friend and his Godfather.

Looking back to the older Harry she discovered that he had fallen to his knees in grief, holding his head in his hands.

"Arry," she said dropping to her knees and raising his face so that she could see the tears pouring down his cheeks. "None of it vas your fault, you ave just been unlucky…."

"Unlucky!" he shouted, cutting her off "Un-sodding-lucky. I've lost everything," he cried "My parents, my godfather, I've hurt my friends because they followed me and even when I try to do what's right I get someone killed. I have no reason to go on Fleur….nothing….and because you're trying to help me you will get hurt too"

She wiped the tears from his cheeks and leaned in to hold him, he clung to her as if the second he let go she would no longer exist.

"I am not going anyvhere Arry….I'm not going anyvhere."

He held onto her for several minutes, crying into the mental image of her robes.

She had never realised just how bad his life had been, she was the only person in the entire world to really see what had gone through from his point of view.

She had seen the accusations, his fear, his miss placed guilt, his sorrow, his pain.

How could anyone live through that?

She had to think of something to help him or he would he lost forever, if only he could see that it was not his fault, if only he could see who's fault it really was.

An idea struck her, it was her only chance.

"Arry," she said leaning back and staring into his eyes "Look into my mind."

"What?" he said, weeping.

"Look into my mind; you need to zee yourself through someone else's eyes, look into my mind and zee the truth."

"I can't."

"You can, are minds are already open to each other, you juzt need to look."

He wiped his eyes as much as he could and looked into hers.

She felt him seeing her memories of what she had just seen, the conclusions she had drawn, the places where she had placed the blame.

Looking into his eyes, Fleur saw the subtly change in his mind, realisation dawned, his fears were set aside and repressed, his conclusions re-evaluated with the new information provided and certainty grew in his mind.

He pulled out of her mind, but she could feel the changes in the very air around her.

Fear and doubt gave way to courage and determination.

Guilt and sorrow to new accusations and anger.

With a flash his memories disappeared and the bed curtains appeared in front of her eyes, looking to Harry she saw his eyes flutter open and a moment later turn towards her, tears of thanks glistening in the corners.

Leaning over she embraced him, she could feel the new stronger personality emerging, reinforcing the battered original.

The magic's which sent him into his mind had now made it stronger, made him stronger, before he would have liked to do nothing more than leave but now he wouldn't; now he would stay.

Now he would fight.

Pulling away from him slightly, the new strength visible in his eyes almost dazzled her.

The change in him sparked a decision in Fleur's mind; then and there she swore to herself, that while there was still breath in her body she would help him fight, never again would he stand alone.

"Fleur….are you ok?" asked Viktor's.

Turning she saw both her parents and Viktor leaning heavily against the end of the bed, panting heavily.

"I feel like I should be asking you that?"

"In those last few seconds," began Viktor in English, attempting to regain his breath "Harry's mind vent from sedate straight into overdrive, at the same time his magic level literally vent thought the roof, I have never seen that amount of raw power before, up until that point I had not needed help but in those last few seconds it took all our strengths to hold the link until ve could separate your minds, just be glad that your parents are both very strong."

"Viktor?" asked Harry surprised.

"Evening Harry….how's your holiday going?"


	15. CH15 General, Comte And Comtesse

Chapter 15 – General, Comte and Comtesse

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:30__th__ July 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:Morning_

At around nine O'clock the next day Fleur awoke to the feel of something warm against her face.

Opening her eyes she turned to look at what the object was, only to discover that it was in fact Harry's chest.

He was looking down at her pleasantly and at a guess she would say that he had probably been waiting for her to awaken before moving, both of his hands were draped around her lightly while her own had lain beside her head on Harry's chest.

His face showed confidence and contentment, there was no hint of shyness or embarrassment that she was sure he would have felt just yesterday.

"Good morning."

"Morning? Vhat happened?"

He removed one of his arms and picked up a piece of paper from beside the bed.

Handing it to her she read the French half; the English was of course for Harry's benefit, she was glad it had been written in both languages as while she could speak fluent English, albeit with a strong accent, she could not even spell 'My name is Fleur' in the strange language without the help of a translation charm.

_Fleur_

_You and Harry both passed out from exhaustion shortly after the procedure, after checking that you were ok we decided to leave you and let you both recover._

_Viktor will be staying over night to check on you in the morning._

_Father_

She placed the piece of paper on the sideboard and looked up at Harry.

"Ow are you?"

"A lot better….thanks to you."

"I didn't do anything." she said smiling, wondering how he always managed to make people feel like they were worth their weight in gold.

"Yes you did, you helped me see that I was not to blame, you helped me to see the people really responsible, you showed my your mind, if I had done something wrong I could have accidentally destroyed yours….no one had ever showed me that level of trust before, not even Ron and Hermione and they trust me more than anyone else….what annoys me, is that there is no way I can ever thank you for what you did."

It had not occurred to Fleur that Harry could damage her mind; she had just done what was necessary to help him, but if she had realised….she would still have done it.

"You owe me nothing." she said shyly, the new Harry was far too charming "I once owed you a great debt, so now ve are equal."

"What debt?" he asked confused.

Some of the light left her eyes as she remembered that day.

"During the Trivizard Tournament, during ve Zecond Task, you remember vat my zister was my hoztage."

"Gabrielle, yes I remember."

"Vhat vas zuppozed to happen vas vat they vould be plazed under a zleeping charm and a breathing charm, ven taken into ve lake and given to ve Merpeople."

Harry noticed how she almost spat out the last word; he nodded for her to continue.

"It iz not commonly known vat Veela and Merpeople are at var, and ave been for several zenturies."

Harry's eyebrow rose.

"Although ve rarely engage in combat any more, ve do not really maintain the best of relationshipz. Ve Merpeople in your lake decided to let my zister have an accident, allowing ve zpells that kept er alive to fail, causing er to wake up, terrified by the zight of our vorst enemy and ven drown er."

Her voice began to fluctuate and Harry tightened his arms around her.

"I only dizcovered vat I vould be fazing ve Merpeople a few hourz before ve tournament."

"I thought Madam Maxime would have helped you?" commented Harry.

"She did, but only vhen she realized that I vould not be able to do it by myself, she told me vat I vould be going undervater, so I figured out how to breath down vere, on the night before task it occurred to me that the egg might zound different undervater. I took a bath to relax myself before ve task, vhen I eard ve message, I realized vat vas going to happen. I went to my zisters room in the carriage, it vas empty, I vent to Madam Maxime telling er vhat I ad dizcovered. Ve both vent straight to Dumbledore's Office to object….but it vas to late, she vaz already in ve lake."

She paused for a moment, the memory causing her pain.

"Ve whole of ve night and ve morning I vas terrified about that vey might do to er….and vhen I vas forzed out of ve task, I vas frantic, I thought vat I ad killed my zister." she tightened her grip on him and he responded comfortingly.

"Ven ve miracle appened, you rezcued er, a vourteen year old boy who I had accuzed of being 'too young' to even appear in ve Tournament ad beaten me and not only zaved iz own hoztage, but ad zaved my zister az vell."

Harry nodded his understanding, now it made sense to him why Fleur had been so frantic about her sister when he had emerged from the lake.

"Well in that case, we'll call it equal." he said with a smile.

She reached up and gave him another kiss on the cheek before beaming at him.

They laid there for several minutes, neither of them really noticing that they were still entwined.

They eventually climbed out of the bed; Fleur went back to her room to freshen up while Harry changed into something other than a pair of creased trousers.

Donning another pair of black trousers that had been left for him, accompanied by a matching black shirt, leaving the top to buttons undone and a pair of black shoes and socks.

A few minutes later just after he had finished in the bathroom there was a knock at the door, opening he saw Fleur, her hair washed and combed straight, hanging over both shoulders, she was dressed in a fresh set of light blue robes (similar to those worn at Beauxbatons) and looked at him complimenting his choice of attire.

"You look….nice." he said shyly.

"Vank you, you don't look too bad either." she returned smiling "It iz definitely good to zee you out of that bed now vat you are vell."

She tactfully did not mention the fact that he was as thin as a rake and that it looked like he could be knocked over by the slightest breeze.

"Thank you."

She linked her arm through his and led him out of his room, subtly ensuring that his lack of muscle did not cause him to collapse. They went along a corridor and down several flights of stairs, the Chateau was decorated warmly in reds, gold's, yellows and oranges, upon reaching the ground floor, she led him towards a pair of thick double doors, as they approached they opened revealing two people going through papers in a large sitting room.

The room was decorated in the same colours as the halls and staircases and there was a warming fire in the large hearth which he suspected was charmed not to give out heat as it was fairly warm in this part of France.

As they entered the couple rose, the male was slightly taller than Harry at around six foot, with green eyes and dark brown hair reaching to his shoulders, if he had been shorted with less hair and a scar he could have accused of being one of his relatives, He gave the impression of confidence and power (not the magic kind, but the kind that means you know how to pull peoples strings).

The women showed a remarkable similarity to the beautiful Veela on his arm, her silver hair fell passed her shoulders; she was the same height as Fleur and had the same deep blue eyes, they could easily have been called sisters.

"Now you ave recovered I can introduze you properly, Arry Potter meet my father Comte Dimitri Delacour,"

Harry released Fleur's arm and moved forward to shake hands with the man, he had a strong grip and thought it only polite to give him a slight bow as well as he shook hands."

"Comte."

"Mr Potter, please, after what you have done for our youngest you can call me Dimitri."

"That applies for me as well." said the woman

"You vant I'm to call you Dimitri as vell?" asked Fleur with a smile.

Both her parents raised their eyebrows at their daughters humour.

"Thank you," Harry interjected "But only if you call me Harry."

Dimitri turned away from his daughter with a smile and directed Harry towards his wife.

"My mother," continued Fleur "Comtesse Delphine Delacour."

She extended her hand "Harry." She greeted.

He kissed the back of her hand, some of Fleur's memories in manners telling him how to act.

"My La….Delphine." He corrected, releasing her hand.

"It is good to see that you have recovered Harry, after what you have been through we were beginning to wonder if we had lost you."

"Thank you for taking care of me, I owe you my life and I wish there was some way to repay you for what you have done for me."

"Arry," scolded Fleur "We ave been through vat."

"Oh, right, sorry."

"Dear, why don't you learn English properly?" asked Dimitri.

"Because my azzent iz zexy," replied Fleur "Izn't it Arry?"

Harry gulped a couple of times, his eyes flicking between Fleur and her parents; luckily he was saved from answering by being barrelled over by a blue and blond bullet.

"Harry!"

Managing to sit himself up from the position he had been rather uncomfortably thrown into, looking down he could see a young blond in a pale blue uniform hugging his waist.

"It is nice to see you too Gabrielle." said Harry with a groan as he attempted unsuccessfully to get up with the blond girl still attached to him, looking up he could see the female Delacour's stifling laughs while Dimitri just shook his head at his daughters antics.

Eventually Dimitri took pity on Harry.

"Gabrielle, let our guest get up, he is not going to go anywhere just because you let go of him."

Gabrielle looked up at Harry and blushed before slowly backing off, still wearing an enormous smile on her face.

"Thank you." he mouthed to Dimitri as he took the offered hand.

"Why are you here Harry?" asked Gabrielle brightly "Shouldn't you be enjoying the summer with your family."

Seeing the uncomfortable look on the others faces, he could tell that they had not told her why he was there.

"Honey…." began Delphine "He…."

"Your sister invited me," Harry jumped in "After tasting the Hogwarts menu she thought I should try some 'real food'." Thankfully Harry recalled how much Fleur disliked the Hogwarts menu.

The Delacour's sent him thank you looks.

"So you're staying a while?" Gabrielle beamed.

Harry sent another look at the other three; they were all nodding, resolve evident on their faces.

"Yes, for a while at…." he did not get the chance to finish as Gabrielle squealed and jumped back on him, luckily this time someone was behind him to stop his fall.

Managing to disentangle himself from Gabrielle once again he turned around to see Viktor Krum standing over him.

"Harry."

"Viktor."

"It is nice to see you again." greeted the Bulgarian Seeker engulfing Harry in a manly hug, unusually for a seeker he was not only tall but also very well built, Harry was surprised he did not feel a few bones snap….again.

Releasing him, Viktor stood back and examined him.

"What have you been eating," he asked jokingly "Your all skin and bones."

"Seekers are supposed to be small." he countered with a grin.

"Small yes, but you're as thin as a broomstick….you're on you're way to being no thicker than a wand."

"And speaking of your size," interjected Delphine with a sly smile, understanding how that could be interpreted "I suggest we have breakfast."

* * *

Breakfast was a fairly informal affair; the Delacour's all helped themselves to croissants, while Harry and Viktor both had a little taste of home, Viktor receiving pancakes and Harry got a full English breakfast, albeit a small one as he was still a bit fragile (plus the fact he had not eaten for a week, discounting the liquids that he had been given to him intravenously while he was unconscious).

Harry had to avoid laughing at the various reactions his meal was getting; Fleur and her mother were looking at it as though it should belong in a dogs bowl, Dimitri and Viktor were hardly concerned at all, while Gabrielle who had positioned herself in the chair next to Harry kept asking if she could try bits (much to her mother and sisters disapproval), she was only eleven so Harry was not surprised.

Harry was surprised to learn that the Delacour's used both House Elves and wizards and witches as staff. They had a butler, several maids and about a dozen House Elves; with the human staff doing most of the interactive work, while the Elves did the hidden jobs.

During the meal they discussed what had happened to the other two champions since they had last seen each other.

Fleur had gone to work at Gringotts, which Harry already knew, though she did not really enjoy the work, especially not since she and Bill had spilt up.

Krum on the other hand had been very busy, since the tournament he had taken up Quidditch full time, begun exercising the Muggle way, had been learning DADA (as of course they didn't actually teach it at Durmstrang) as well as becoming a competent Occlumens and Legilimens.

After that they discussed what the Delacour's did for a living, Harry was surprised to find out that Dimitri was lined up as a possibility for the next French Minister of Magic.

It surprised Harry to learn that the French Minister was not elected from the Ministry, but from a group called 'Le Conseil De Puissance', The Council of Power, consisting of Dimitri, several other important French nobles, influential businessmen and a selection of elected ordinary wizards.

Between them they more or less controlled France via the Ministry, they make the important decisions while the Ministry handles the routine work, the elected Minister controls both the Council and the Ministry.

Apart from being a member of the council, Dimitri also played the Wizarding and Muggle stock markets and between him and his wife they had a fortune that made Harry's bank faults look like a child's pocket money.

Harry was beginning to feel more and more inadequate.

After the meal they managed to get rid of Gabrielle by promising to her that Harry would speak more to her later, they gathered in the Sitting room, Dimitri and Delphine sitting in a pair of armchairs by the fire, Viktor sitting opposite them in the corner of one sofa and Harry and Fleur on the other.

"Harry," begun Dimitri "We did have a slight ulterior motive when we asked Fleur to bring you here, we know a war is coming, a battle is inevitable...but we haven't picked a side yet."

Harry straightened up "You mean you may side with Voldemort?"

"NO." exclaimed Delphine sharply, while the others all gasped at the thought "No, definitely not, what my husband means is while we want to fight on the good side...we don't trust their General."

"Dumbledore." nodded Harry, understanding what they meant.

"Unlike Dumbledore we trust you," explained Dimitri "And as a result we pledge our support to you in the war."

Harry froze, he then attempted to speak several times which ended up with him merely opening and closing his mouth like a fish.

"Can you….can you say that again…I think I must have misheard you."

"We want you to be our General." explained Delphine.

They all looked at him expectantly.

"You lot haven't been drinking have you?"

They chuckled.

"No Arry, ve are seriouz, ve truzt you to do thiz."

"I'm not even sixteen yet."

"You vill be tomorrow," continued Fleur "And I fully intend to take you out to try zome real food as a birthday treat."

"Surely it makes more sense for Dimitri to be the General, he is the influential adult."

"Yez, but the prophezy sayz he iz not the vone who az to defeat Voldemort."

Harry's eyes snapped to her almost making her recoil.

"How did you know that?" he demanded.

"Contrary to what Dumbledore believes," began Dimitri with a smile, pulling Harry's eyes off of his daughter "There was another witness to the prophecy, I managed to buy the information then obliterated it from his memory, leaving him with a very large and mysterious bank balance."

"And what have you done with that information?" asked Harry cautiously, while subconsciously fingering his wand through the material of his pocket.

"For the last fifteen years not much," explained Dimitri "That is to say, not much that can be seen, but now we have a chance to act and we have no intention of letting A. Voldemort take over the world or B. Dumbledore ruin our chance of freedom by mucking up the war. Thusly we need to take a pivotal role and Dumbledore does not trust us enough to let us do that. That is why we need to form a third group, a group that fights against the Death Eaters but more effectively than the Order of the Phoenix….A group led by you."

"They are right Harry." said Viktor "This war is the reason that I have been training so hard, because I knew that I would have to pick a side and after hearing about Gabrielle I knew that side was not Dumbledore's."

"We have not been inactive all these years if that is what you are thinking," continued Delphine "We have been planning, seeing who we could persuade to join us when the time came, that sort of thing….All we need now is a leader and you are the perfect candidate. Your noble, loyal and caring, you know how to fight; only you can defeat Voldemort, you are one of the few people that Voldemort fears, your name and deeds earn you respect and in believing that you do not possess the skills to do this it proves that you are the exact person for this." finished Delphine smugly.

They sat in silence for a minute while Harry digested the information. Just two days ago he would have said no, he didn't want the responsibility, he didn't want all those people relying on him, but now….now he was a different person, he was no longer the Harry that would let himself get pushed around, he was no longer the Harry that blindly followed orders, this was the Harry that wanted to fight and win.

"Ok, let's do it."

"Excellent, I…." Fleur began but was cut of sharply by a bell ringing, seconds later the fire flared green.

"Some one is trying to contact us," explained Fleur rapidly as she exited the room "Quickly, Harry, Viktor, behind the sofas."

Viktor literally dived off his seat and pulled himself and Harry over the top of one of the sofas, only to fall to the ground with a painful thump.

* * *

Bill Weasley was exhausted; he had spent the past four hours throwing Floo Powder at the Burrows damn fireplace, contacting everyone that the Order knew.

It had started six hours previously when Tonks, Charlie, Moody and Kingsley had arrived back at Order head quarters looking extremely frantic, it turned out that Fleur had been correct, they should not have waited, Harry was missing and according to his relatives they had not seen him since the 25th which is….which was five days previously and thanks to all the running around they had just crossed into day six.

As soon as they returned, the Order went onto high alert, every contact, every hiding place, every….In fact there was no place the Order could think Harry could be, they knew he couldn't have been taken by Death Eaters, as Death Eaters would have blasted the door and killed his family. In addition there were no signs of battle, which meant either Harry went voluntarily or he was unable to fight back.

He had only six more people to contact, he was currently contacted all those who had contacts of their own and was now working his way towards the end of that list, next was Fleur, throwing the powder into the fire he called out the address.

He waited momentarily as they unlocked the fireplace before moving his head nearer.

"William," Delphine greeted "What a nice surprise, to what do we owe the pleasure of your company."

"Unfortunately Delphine we do not have time to joke….Harry Potter had gone missing."

"Vhat?" exclaimed Fleur marching into the room.

"Morning Fleur and you heard me right, Harry has disappeared."

"I knew it, I did zay vat ve should ave gone to ave got im immediately, didn't I say."

"Yes Fleur, you were right, but we can not worry about that now. Dimitri, Dumbledore would like to request that you have a covert snoop around the French Ministry, see if they know anything."

"I'll get on it immediately William." said Dimitri putting down a handful of financial papers, everyone in the room knew that Dumbledore probably hadn't phrased it as a requests but they would co-operate anyway "I'll contact you if hear anything."

"Thank you, I would stop and tell you more but I have dozens more people to contact yet, Fleur, can you fill them in I need to get going."

"Of courze, good bye and good luck."

"To both of us." he replied.

The green flame died and the fireplace locked behind him.

* * *

Getting up awkwardly, Harry took a hold of his formerly broken arm and managed to lever himself up."

"What's wrong Harry," asked Viktor "As a Seeker you must have taken harder dives than that."

"Yes, but normally I don't play after I have just had a broken arm and Wizard Flu."

"Ah right, sorry."

Fleur moved to Harry's side and aided him as he sat back down on the sofa.

"Who does Dumbledore think he is," ranted Delphine "Ordering you to snoop around for him."

"I'd better ask around anyway or they will get suspicious, if you will excuse me." said Dimitri standing and walking out of the room.

After her husbands departure Delphine turned to Harry.

"I suggest that you send a letter to Dumbledore to tell him you are ok and are not in danger."

"I suppose I should, I am tempted to let him stew for a bit," said Harry with an evil smile "But that would be unfair to everyone else, I will write later today otherwise it would look like I know they have just discovered I am missing."

"Good idea Harry….Well, now that you are well again we need to build your fitness up, what special training were you receiving before your illness?"

"Well err..." Harry began, special training, what special training "Oh yes, Snape was teaching me Occlumency until he through me out and...oh Remus taught me the Patronus Charm in my third year."

The others sat there waiting for him to continue before Delphine said.

"Is...is that...all?" she sputtered.

"Yes, kind of."

"You mean you ave had no spezial training." continued Fleur.

"No, not really."

Fleur leaped to her feat almost whacking Harry's arm as she went.

"Vhen I zee that Dumbledore next, I'm going to...I'm going to...Arrr!" she exclaimed in frustration, slumping back to the seat in frustration.

"That is the first order of business then," began Viktor "Getting you trained up. As soon as I consult with the Occlumens Council and they verify that I am skilled enough to teach others, I will begin instructing you in Occlumency and Legilimency, I will also start taking you on morning runs and putting you through the Bulgarian Quidditch Team training schedule."

"I can contact some friends of ours, along with a few people who owe us favours, we can get your magic trained up, as well as teaching you how to duel." continued Delphine.

"We only have five weeks before I have to return to Hogwarts," Harry pointed out "There is no way I can learn all that in five weeks."

"I have had an idea about that," said Viktor slowly "But it is not exactly legal."

"I'm not going to like this am I." said Harry worriedly.

"Unlikely." said Fleur smiling.

"What is your idea?" asked Delphine.


	16. CH16 A Mysterious Message

Chapter 16 – A Mysterious Message

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:31st July 2001 AD_

_Country:England – Devon_

_Location:The Burrow_

_Time:Evening_

Ginerva Weasley was sitting by her windowsill again.

She was wondering….or rather praying that Harry had recovered and was in fact alive and well.

Her answer appeared on the horizon as Hedwig swooped into view.

She jumped to her feet as the bird approached and almost ripped the message from her leg, causing the poor bird to click in annoyance.

She quickly opened the message, a second envelope fluttered to the ground which she ignored, instead focusing on the letter in her hands.

_Dear Ginny_

_It's Harry and yes I am alive...thanks of you._

_Thanks to the information you sent, Fleur was able to enter my mind and work me through my pain._

_I am now fully recovered except for a little weakness from the flu. _

_I am going to begin training to try to work that off so by the time school starts I should be my old self again._

_The enclosed letter is a message for the Order though it is addressed to the Weasley's, that way Hedwig can leave before Dumbledore knows, I would like you when you have finished reading it to run into your brothers room with the other envelope, shouting that it is from me or something._

_I owe you my life Ginny; I hope that some day I can repay you._

_Harry_

She read the letter twice sighing, why did he have to say that at the end, she had been trying to get over her school girl infatuation, that letter had just fuelled it.

After thinking for several seconds she placed the letter in one of the draws beside her bed before picking up a bit of parchment and scribbled a note which she gave to Hedwig along with the delivery instructions.

Waiting until Hedwig was completely gone she picked up the letter off the floor, quickly reading it before running out of her room.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore was marching back and forth inside his office, he had just received a letter via the Weasley's and he quite honestly was not sure whether it was good or bad news.

Stopping and leaning against his chair he read the letter again.

_To the Order_

_By now I'm sure you will have discovered that I am no longer in Little Whinging and you are probably combing the country for me._

_What you do not know is that I have no intention of ever going back to the Dursley's ever again, especially after this summer._

_I expect they told you that I had just left on my own or something, well I am telling you now this is not true, I had very real reasons for leaving._

_I will not tell you what these reasons are but rest assured they have destroyed my faith in the Order, Dumbledore, and in particular their ability to keep me safe._

_I am sure you will be pleased to here that the wards around the Dursley's were useless as when my hosts came to get me, the only barrier they faced was the front door. The protections around me at the moment are significantly greater than those protecting me before._

_All I am going to tell you is that I am alive and that I am not going back, I trust my current hosts a lot more than the rest of you and I will be staying with them for the remainder of the summer._

_Ron, Hermione, Ginny, I apologise if I worried you and I look forward to seeing you on the first day of school._

_I will return on September 1st._

_Do not try to find me._

_Harry Potter._

Dumbledore folded the letter and placed it on his desk, he had sent word to all the Order members to keep looking, he did not believe that Harry was safe wherever he was, if the letter was even genuine.

He had had Mr Weasley send a message to Miss Granger informing her of Harry's letter, there was no need for them to worry as well.

There had to be a way to find him….there had to be….


	17. CH17 Take One: Professor Potter

Chapter 17 – Take One: Professor Potter

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:31st July 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:Morning_

As Harry's first day of training began, Viktor woke him at six am, informing him that they were going to run, changing into some Wizarding sports gear he found in his wardrobe; consisting of a red pair of trousers, a red shirt and a pair of sports trainers, all of which fitted him perfectly, upon closer inspection he realised that they were a pair of his Gryffindor Quidditch robes which had been adapted to fit him better.

He met Viktor in the Entrance Hall; he was dressed similarly except his clothes were in Bulgarian colours.

"You ready Harry?"

"Probably not, I have less muscle on me than a flubberworm."

Viktor laughed deeply before beginning the lesson.

He ran Harry through a series of stretches and explained to Harry why they were important.

After the stretches they started to run, Viktor led Harry out of the house and began to do a lap of the lawn.

It was the first time that Harry had been outside of the Chateau and he could finally get a look at the house that he was staying in.

The Chateau wasn't so much a castle, but a mansion, it was very large, built in a light grey or creamy stone (it was hard to tell in the dawn light), with white cornering and detailing. It was roughly rectangular except for the towers at each corner which were the same height as the Chateau and were capped with individual cone shaped roofs which were not quite as tall as the main roof.

From his knowledge of the inside of the Chateau he new that the towers were just room extensions, small window lined towers in the corner of rooms roughly one and a half meters in width that allowed an almost unrestricted view in all directions.

The Chateau itself was vast, about five stories tall at least one hundred and fifty meters in length and fifty deep, on one side of it a little way down the hill was a smaller building that looked more like sheds than actual rooms. Surrounding the Chateau on all sides, sloping of into the distance were endless expanses of grass, trees and lakes and to cap it all of, to the south and west the Mediterranean could be seen twinkling in the mornings rays.

It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

They ended up running the entire way around the estate, which had to be a good five miles, heaven knows how Harry managed it with as little muscle as he now had, it was probably only his Quidditch stamina that made him last.

As they reached the main entrance Harry literally fell to the grass in exhaustion.

"Very good Harry," congratulated Viktor breathing heavily "I am surprised that you managed even half that distance."

"I am just surprised I made it to the finish." replied Harry between gasps.

"Actually the finish is after another four circuits."

"Four!" exclaimed Harry "That's not possible."

"It's what a Quidditch player has to do if he wants to join the Bulgarian team, officially you only have to do it once but I like to keep my fitness level height."

He pulled Harry to his feet and helped him inside.

"Arry," exclaimed Fleur as she came down the main staircase "Vhat ave you been doing to im?" she asked Viktor, anger evident in her voice at the sight Harry gasping for breath and barely able to stand, his clothes soaked in sweat.

"Nothing much," gasped out Harry "Just the odd five mile death march, nothing special."

"Vive miles!" she exclaimed moving to his other side to support him "Ow on Earth did you manage it?"

"Stubbornness." answered Viktor with a chuckle as they made their way to Harry's room "Rest for the remainder of the day, next time we will start later, you did very well this morning."

They deposited Harry on his bed before Krum left the room; Fleur remained, moving into the bathroom she ran him a soothing bath, pouring some exotic oils into the water, creating a pleasant and relaxing aroma.

The bathroom was large holding a shower and a very circular bath, around one end of the bath were a series of knobs lined up around a set of three taps, one tap for hot, one tap for cold and one tap for all the exotic suds and scents that the knobs activated.

Returning to the room she moved to the bed and helped him into the bathroom

"Ave a bath, I shall return in a vhile vith your lunch."

"Lunch," he chuckled "I haven't even had breakfast yet."

She turned to him.

"Vhat do you mean you aven't had breakvast?"

"We have been running since dawn," explained Harry.

"I shall be aving vords vith Viktor." she said more to herself than Harry, though he could see the scowl on her face. "Now bathe."

She left him there; he slowly stripped of his clothes and slid into the tub, the warm water and exotic suds soothing his aching muscles.

Twenty minutes later he managed to heave himself out of the still warm bath.

Donning a red dressing gown he wandered back into the bedroom, some of his strength having returned to him.

As he laid down on the bed, he noticed for the first time that there was a door on the far side of the room.

Getting up he went and opened the door, immediately behind it was a wall.

Before he could investigate further, the door opened and Fleur glided in carrying a tray.

"You look better," she complimented with a smile.

"Thanks, what is..." he began, gesturing to the room.

"It is a special room, most of the bedrooms have one, you simply think what you want the room to be and it becomes it...within reazon."

"Oh," He replied moving back to the bed "It sounds a bit like The Room of Requirements at Hogwarts."

Harry sat on the bed beside Fleur but paused when he saw the tray of food.

"What are those?"

"Croissants," she said picking one up "Do not vorry, you vill like vem."

Harry picked one up and looked at it sceptically, seeing Fleur looking at him expectantly while delicately eating hers, he cautiously took a bite.

Munching the pastry he tested the flavour.

"Vell?" asked Fleur

"It's a little….dry."

Fleur rolled her eyes

"This from the people who eat sconez."

"Scones have large quantities of cream on them." defended Harry.

Fleur shook her head in amusement and uncovered a small plate of butter on the corner of the tray.

"I took precautionz."

Harry smiled as they settled down for brunch.

An hour later Harry and Fleur wandered down stairs heading towards the sitting room.

Fleur had brought a Pepper-up potion with the meal so Harry's was currently feeling relatively energetic, despite having run five miles.

They opened the doors to the sitting room and came to an abrupt halt as they saw who was sitting talking to Dimitri and Delphine.

"Madam Maxime!" exclaimed Fleur.

"Oh dear."

The half giant elegantly turned and stood, mild surprise on her face.

"Mr Potter, so thiz is vhere you ave been iding out."

"Madam Maxime." Harry greeted bowing.

"I must confess I vas curious to vhere you ave been iding out ever since Albuz contacted me."

"Fleur rescued me from my relatives hospitality, brought me back to health and have been caring for me ever since." he explained.

"Rezcued you?" she asked frowning "Don't most studentz enjoy there holidayz?"

"They had beaten and tortured him," explained Dimitri "When he arrived he was a walking bruise, or at least he would have been had he not been crippled by Wizarding Flu and left to die in a locked room."

Madam Maxime turned red in fury, her lip quivered as she tried to restrain herself from exploding, eventually she managed to force out.

"I zee."

"Very restrained of you Olympe." commented Dimitri trying hard not to smile at the colour of her face.

"I truzt that they ave been taken care of." she said turning to Dimitri.

"Legal proceedings are under way as we speak."

"They are?" questioned Harry surprised.

"Yes," confirmed Delphine "They were arrested and are now out on bail, they are due in court in two weeks time, you do not need to see them again Harry, Viktor volunteered to go in your place using Polyjuice Potion, as he has seen your memories it seemed like the best way."

"There is no need….I will go myself." He said with a degree of certainty.

"Are you sure Arry?" asked Fleur.

He nodded slowly, determination evident on his face; he was going to be there when their world came tumbling down, just like his had, except for them….there would be no way back up.

"Anyway, coming back to the current situation," he said turning to Madam Maxime "What are you going to tell Dumbledore now that you know I am staying here?"

Madam Maxime pondered for a moment before answering.

"As you are alive and vell and obviously in safe handz," she sent a glance at Fleur who still had her arm through his "I vill tell im nothing, that man lovez to be in control of everything, that is vhy the first Tournament was eld at Hogwarts...it would be nice to zee him at a loss for vonce."

Harry gave her a one sided grin.

"Ow ever."

_Hear it comes _thought Harry _Always a catch._

"You could do zomething for me." she continues with a smile.

"Yes?" asked Harry slowly.

"My school iz currently in need of a flying instructor….az vell az a Defenze Profezzor."

Harry stood for several seconds staring at her before bursting out laughing.

"You want me to hahaha….to, to teach."

In between bouts of laughter he looked at the expression on her face, his laughter died in his throat.

"Your serious."

"Yez."

"I'm only here for another five weeks or so and I am supposed to be using that time to train up and then after that school star…." confusion crossed Harry's face "Wait, it's the holidays, how will I be able to teach students if they are at home?"

"It iz holiday for the Eenglish schoolz Arry," explained Fleur "Rulez state vat Beauxbatons has to be open for a zertain number of veeks every year, there voz a period lazt year vhen the school voz forzed to cloze due to staff shortagez , the studenze were zent ome, zo they are completing those veeks now, bazically vey got an early holiday."

"That's why Gabrielle was in her school uniform." realised Harry.

"Yes," continued Dimitri "We asked that she be allowed to return home so that she could see an old friend, she has developed a bit of a crush on you."

Harry blushed slightly, causing Fleur to giggle.

"Returning to the point, you will be able to teach at Beauxbatons Harry," explained Delphine "We just use the same technique we were going to use for compressing your training into five weeks?"

Harry opened his mouth to protest, but realising that it would work closed it again and returned to the issue of teaching.

"Regardless of how I could do it, I am supposed to be remaining hidden, I can't do that I am teaching, plus the fact that I have no teaching experience."

"Vhat about the DA?" asked Madam Maxime "You taught vem how to fight."

"How on Earth do you know about the DA?" Harry asked seriously, if he didn't already know her he would probably have been fingering his wand now.

"Your mizzion into ve Department of Mysteriez iz vell known Mr Potter." she explained.

"And you can uze magic to alter your appearanze." suggested Fleur.

"I can't speak French." tried Harry again, there had to be someway that he could get out of this and there was no way he could learn French in time.

"Viktor knows French, we can use his Occlumency skills to transfer his knowledge to you and French children learn English as soon as they start school anyway."

Harry glared at Dimitri for suggesting it; he was met with a beaming smile; that was his last argument shot down.

Harry tried desperately to think of an excuse, anything to stop him from teaching, his mind failed him.

He sighed,

"When do I start?"

* * *

That evening rolled around, Madam Maxime spent the rest of the day explaining what his job would entail.

The previous flying instructor had apparently been very….well, for lack of a better word, traditional, brooms were apparently meant only for getting from one place to another quickly, as a result most of the students could barely fly and those that only knew because they had leaned at home, even the seventh years. Madam Maxime had decided to

On the plus side, the school had just been upgrading and replacing its ageing brooms with newer affordable Nimbus 2000's, which of course Harry was familiar with, this would aid his disguise as he could use one of them instead of his Firebolt, which he remembered Umbridge still had in her office, though he doubted she would still be teaching.

As regards his other teaching role, he discovered that Defence was not as he had believed it to be; Defence Against The Dark Arts, instead it was a separate subject Defence Against Assault.

The class was basically just like the DA, teaching the students how to duel, this made Harry feel a bit better as it meant he did not need to drone on about grindylows and boggarts and he could just focus on spells.

After hearing all of this his spirits lifted, it made him actually look forward to his first day….sort of.

He was to start work in a week or so of his time, to give him a chance to settle in and to get his training properly organised.

As midnight rolled around Fleur entered the room they had agreed to meet in.

"Did your father get it?"

Fleur held out her hand, the object lay on her open palm.

"It wazn't eazy, he add to call in a lot ov favourz."

"Let's just hope it's worth it."

Fleur looked at him disapprovingly.

"For you Arry, anyving is vorth it...ready?"

Harry nodded and took hold of the Time Turner and wound it backwards twenty four times and they vanished.


	18. CH18 Take Two Sleeping Arangments

Chapter 18 – Take Two: Sleeping Arrangements

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:31st July 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:Morning_

They materialised in the same room twenty four hours earlier.

"Did it work?" asked Harry

Fleur looked at a clock on the wall "Yez, it is exactly tvelve O'clock midnight, tventy vour hourz earlier."

"Right, I suggest we get some sleep then, we have a busy day tomorrow, I'll go and change." He then headed into the bathroom.

Returning several minutes later wearing only his boxers and a dressing gown he discovered Fleur sitting on the bed, doing her hair, wearing a long flowing night dress, with a low cut neck.

"Fleur….I though this was my room?" he said slightly embarrassed at seeing her in her night things, he instinctively pulled the dressing gown tight around himself.

She laughed

"Oh Arry, don't be zilly, it iz our room."

"But….why aren't you in your room?"

"Because I am already vere remember, the Chateau may be large Arry but it is not big enough for uz each to ave separate roomz while you're training."

"Shall I...shall I go and get some extra bedding?" he asked moving to the door.

"Vhat for?" she asked looking confused.

"So that I can sleep on the floor" he replied.

"Oh Arry, don't be silly," she laughed, getting up and walking towards him, Harry had to fight the urge to back up...either that our throw himself at the sexy Veela "Ve are sleeping in the zame bed."

Harry's eyebrows almost went through the roof.

"Wer, we, were...were what?" he stuttered.

She didn't answer him but began to pull him towards the bed, when they reached it, she began pulling at the cord of his dressing gown, he instinctively pulled it tighter around himself.

"Vere is no need to be shy; I have zeen you in your night vings before."

While she had seen him wearing what he was wearing at this precise moment in time before, it did not feel right, she had been fully clothed and he had been sick and bedridden

He reluctantly let her remove his dressing gown before pushing him onto the bed, dressed only in his boxers.

She moved around to the other side and got in as Harry slowly did the same on his own side, laying on his back, staying as close to the edge as possible.

Fleur saw what he was doing.

"Arry, I azzure you I don't bite."

He shifted in ten centimetres.

Fleur rolled her eyes.

"Come ere Arry."

He shifted in another ten centimetres, staying on his back and getting more and more rigid as he got closer.

"Clozer."

He moved another ten centimetres.

"Arry, you don't need to be zo Chivalrouz." she moved towards him so that they were both in the centre of the bed, she very slightly brushed his hand with her own and he began shifting back to the other side.

"Oh no you don't." she scolded catching his arm and pulling him back.

Before he had a chance to protest she shuffled right next to him, laid her head on his chest and pulled his left arm around her.

She snuggled into his embrace and closed her eyes.

Harry was tenser than he had ever been in his life, the most beautiful woman he had ever met, dressed in a sexy nightdress was in the same bed with him, but more shockingly was that she was using his chest as a pillow.

He would never be able to get to sleep.

He just hoped Fleur didn't notice what had grown between his thighs.

Despite what Harry believed he did eventually fall to sleep to enjoy one of the most peaceful night's rests of his life.

* * *

He awoke the next morning feeling more refreshed than he had all year, he could feel Fleur's weight against his chest, the feeling was somehow comforting.

He still had one arm around her while the other lay beside her face.

He began stroking circles through her night gown, enjoying the friendly if not slightly close contact.

After several seconds he had come around fully and carefully opened his eyes.

He had to try very hard not to jump out of the bed when he saw exactly where his hand had been stroking.

He very rapidly withdrew his hand from her breast as she began to stir and pretended to be asleep as her eyes fluttered open.

After several seconds he heard Fleur whisper.

"Arry, it iz time to vake up."

He groaned slightly and stretched before letting his eyes open for the second time.

Once open he saw Fleur's smiling face looking back at him.

"Good morning." he mumbled, doing his best to make it sound like he had just woken up.

"Morning, ow did you sleep?"

"Pretty well," he said, trying to hide the fact that he had had probably the best night of his life "You?"

"Not bad, I had a very nize pillow." she replied with a sly smile making Harry blush.

After several minutes of lounging they slowly got up, Harry ensuring that he did not touch her more than necessary as they separated, something that did not go unnoticed by Fleur, causing her to smile.

Departing for the bathroom Fleur returned several minutes later, fully dresses, though unusually wearing a tight fitting set of blue jogging bottoms along with a T-shirt, revealing her alabaster arms.

"Did you vink I vas juzt going to zit by and vatch," She explained at his confused expression "I vill be training vith you."

"Oh….are you sure?" he asked as he finished tying the lace on his trainers.

"Of courze."

At that moment a house elf appeared with their breakfast, due to the fact that they were going to be going back in time, they could not eat with Fleur's parents as they would of course also be eating with themselves at a different time, so they had decided to have breakfast with them one day, lunch another and the same for dinner, trying to match the meals up in such a way as to make the most sense to the schedule.

Once finished they headed for the room they were training in this time repeat.

This time around it was Physical Defence, the room they entered was large and open providing plenty of space to train, they had decided that it would be pointless to just learn magic as you can easily loose your wand in a battle and what Pure-Blood wizard would suspect them to come at them kicking and punching.

In the centre of the room standing perfectly still was a short woman, wearing the sort of robe people wear to do martial arts, what made it look less impressive was the fact that the robes were bright pink. She looked to be around twenty years of age with long brown hair which was tied back into a pony tail.

They walked towards her, expecting her to great them or to move in someway.

When they were less than five meters from her they stopped.

"Hello?" Harry said cautiously.

In a flash of movement her eyes flew open; leapt forward, did a cartwheel, jumped out of it and brought her leg around to kick Harry in the face.

The pair dived in opposite directions, barely avoiding the foot, Harry doing one of the few gymnastic moves he had learned due to coming of his broom at high speeds so many times.

Curling as he hit the floor, he rolled and spun out jumping to his feet and drawing his wand which was rapidly kicked out if his hand, he received a kick to the chest, sending him back several meters to collide with the floor.

Harry groaned as he clutched his stomach attempting to get to his feet, the sounds of impacts could still be heard, after a couple more seconds they stopped to be replaced by silence

"Good." A high pitched American voice said chirpily.

Looking up from his position on the floor he could see the woman sitting on the floor, her knees either side of rather annoyed looking Fleur who was pinned on her front beneath the woman with her arms behind her back.

She slowly got up and gave Fleur a hand up as Harry struggled to his feet.

"That was impressive, as neither of you has ever had any training I was expecting for you both to have been hit with my first attack."

She withdrew two vials from her robes, handing one to each of them.

"These are pain numbing potions; we will be using them during these initial sessions as they dull the pain of an impact after a couple of seconds."

Harry quickly downed his, within seconds the pain in his stomach was reduced to a low ache.

"My name is Polly; I will be teaching you Physical or Muggle Defence, including karate, judo and kick boxing. I am teaching you this summer as a favour to Comtesse Delacour." she explained "First I will teach you how to stretch."

The rest of the day was spent learning the basics of punching and kicking, luckily both Harry and Fleur were very flexible and easily managed to pick up the moves.

Harry had to resist the temptation to just spend the day staring at Fleur as she went about the exercises, her figure stretching and bending into posses that would make most men groan in pleasure.

At the end of the day they had learned the basics of punching, kicking, blocking and the correct way to fall, they were understandably tired and just wanted to go to bed, the training was a lot more strenuous than they thought, how on earth Polly managed to remain pleasant and awake for the entire day they would never know.

After saying goodbyes to Polly they staggering into tomorrows room, they had to force themselves to actually stay conscious while they ate dinner instead of simply collapsing onto the bed, after managing to finish the light supper they had been given they barely managed to operate the Time Turner before collapsing onto the bed, falling asleep before they could even pull up the covers.


	19. CH19 Take Three Duelling With Veela

Chapter 19 –Take Three: Duelling with Veela

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:31st July 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:After Midnight_

For some reason Harry awoke early the next morning, glancing at the clock he discovered that it was about three am.

He rolled over and saw Fleur lying with the covers pooled around her waste, still wearing her exercise gear from the previous day.

Harry had to overt his eyes to stop himself staring at the rise and fall of her chest.

He moved his eyes to her face, an expression of peace clearly visible on her beautiful features.

He reached down and pulled the thin sheet up and under her chin, before slipping quietly out of the bed.

He knew well enough that once he had woken up he would never drop off again, at least not until he tired himself out.

He moved to one of the chairs by the table where they ate dinner and began practising his Occlumency.

After his next Exercise Lesson with Viktor he would continue to learn Occlumency from the Bulgarian Seeker and he thought it best to prepare as best he could.

He spent several minutes relaxing and clearing his mind as he was supposed to have done when Snape was teaching him.

After running through the process of raising and lowering what shields he had several times he opened his eyes and stared at the door on that side of the room.

The door that led to the requirements room.

As he continued to look an idea entered his mind.

He got up and walked to the door, grasping the handle he concentrated on what he wanted.

Opening the door, he saw a fully equipped gymnasium, complete with a running track around the outside.

Smiling he walked back to the bed and picked up the Time Turner before returning to the door.

There was a clear path straight down the middle of the equipment to the other end of the room, leaving the door open he closed his eyes and walked into the room, counting to thirty he turned and looked back at the door, walking back to it he pulled it closed without looking into the bedroom.

Hoping his plan had actually worked he picked up the Time Turner and wound it back six hours.

When he re-materialised the room was completely bare, closing his eyes again he focused on what he wanted, opening them again he was confronted with a view of the room as it would be in six hours.

Withdrawing his wand he cast a Silencing Charm on the door.

The Delacour's had had a wand specialist remove the tracking spell on his wand that traced magic performed outside of school.

He then placed both in his pockets before moving to the closest piece of equipment.

* * *

Five hours and fifty nine minutes later he stood a couple of metres from the door with his back pressed against the wall, while his body recovered from the workout it had just been put through.

Hearing the door open he made an effort not to make any noise, a few seconds later he saw himself walk into the room with his eyes shut, just as he had done six hours before, he carefully walked to the door and through it before pressing his body up against the wall on the other side, he did not move until he heard the door close behind him.

Harry had to congratulate himself on the brilliance of the plan, even Hermione would be impressed. He had entered the room with the knowledge that he would already be in there, but as he had not seen or heard himself, he didn't know if he actually had or had not been there and so the encounter was perfectly safe.

Smiling he walked back to the bed and laid back down next to Fleur, he would have to a make this a regular occurrence, every night possibly, within seconds he was asleep.

* * *

The next morning they went down to have their first meal with Dimitri and Delphine both of whom were quite content to sit and listen while their eldest described the last forty eight hours.

Harry was also quite content to just sit and eat, the late night training session had tired him out a bit and he wanted to rest as much as possible before today's training session.

The duelling room was similar to that of Physical Defence, except larger and with heavier padding. The teachers were a brother and sister, they were about the same height at around five foot ten, both had light brown hair, Jenny's hair hung around her face but did not reach her shoulders while John's hair resembled Harry's wild style.

"Good morning," greeted Jennifer "I am Jennifer, call me Jenny and this is my brother John, we will be teaching you duelling over the coming weeks."

"We would first like the pair of you to duel so we can asses your skill level." explained John "You can use any magic you want as long as it is not restricted and will not cause permanent or severe damage."

Moving to the centre of the room they each drew their wands and bowed to each other.

Harry was going to find this impossible, having never seen her duel and after seeing how weak she could seem (when her sister was brought out of the lake) he automatically assumed that she would be an amateur whereas he had been teaching others how to duel.

Boy was he wrong.

The second the duel started she fired of a hail of stunner's in his direction, causing him to dive out of the way, spinning around he fired of a disarmer before rapidly raising a shield just in time to catch another spell coming his way.

He rapidly fired a cluster of three spells, finishing with Rictusempra.

She managed to raise a shield to the first, which it shattered, dodge the second only to get hit by the third which had been aimed with her dodging in mind.

She hit the ground laughing, not expecting the particular charm it caught her by surprise enabling him to summon her wand to his hand, just as she finished cancelling his charm.

Bringing both wands to bear he was about to fire of two sets of ropes to restrain her when he was suddenly overcome.

His eyes locked onto her eyes and he couldn't move them away, he stared into them and sighed at the beautiful sight.

The next thing he new Fleur's wand went flying out of his hand only just giving him enough time to grab his own as it to began to jump from his grip.

The spell had been powerful enough to pull him off his feet only stopping when he (his wand in hand) hit the floor.

He instinctively rolled to the side as a curse impacted the mats where he had just been.

Jumping to his feet he found a hail of flowers come flying at him.

They circled him and collided painfully with his arm, lightly grazing and cutting at his skin every time he tried to raise it to curse her, not that he could see her through the storm.

Before he could cancel the spell, his wand flew from his hand and he found himself in a body bind, leaving him wobbling dangerously.

After several seconds the flowers disappeared as the bind was released, as soon as the flowers fell to the floor he could see Fleur walking towards him, both wands in her hand wearing a smile of triumph.

"I may ave a pritty face Arry, but vat does not mean I do not no ow to fight." she said smugly handing his wand back.

There attention was turned back to the Wrights when they heard hands clapping.

"Very good, you both seem to have a good grasp of how to duel." congratulated John.

"Have either of you had any tutelage on the subject?" asked Jenny.

"I vas the under aighteens dulling champion at Beauxbatons." Fleur said proudly.

Harry turned to her.

"I didn't know that."

"You never asked," she explained with a smile "I did say I'm not just a pritty face."

"What about you Harry?" asked John.

"I haven't been in any tournaments or anything except for one single duel in my second year but that didn't get very far, other than that it's just been against Death Eaters and Voldemort."

Harry was pleased to see that none of them flinched, from what Fleur had told him Voldemort wasn't that dangerous to mainland Europe during the first war.

"I seriously doubt that fighting with You-Know-Who and his followers should be passed over so lightly," said Jenny "Many of them are experienced duellists, did I not also here somewhere that you had been teaching others how to duel, in the...DA."

"Dumbledore's Army yeah, I taught a few friends how to duel that's all."

"A few friendz that managed to fight a battle in the Department of Myzteriez, against Death Eaters" added Fleur giving the full facts, refusing to let Harry understate everything "All of whom came out alive."

"Barely." he muttered looking down, he felt Fleur's hand snake its way into his, giving him a comforting squeeze.

"None the less," began John "It proves that you have the ability to teach what you have learned, from your duelling style it was obvious that you have had no formal training, as almost all your moves were standard duelling tactics, with the exception of the well planned tickling charm distraction, trained duellist often add flare to their duelling style as Fleur did where as you are currently a very to-the-point dueller with a fairly limited spell base to draw from."

Jenny continued where her brother had left of.

"Fleur on the other hand, as well as using normal duelling tactics, adds flare to her attacks, as the wandless summoning charm and hail of flowers proved, she also uses every weapon at her disposal to win like she did when she used her Veela powers to temporarily distract you, not to mention my brother."

John and Harry blushed at the comment, causing Fleur to smile widely.

"The use of the Flowers also shows that she has a relaxed attitude to duelling, as she was calm enough to add some irony to the duel, as her name translates as..."

"Flower of the Court." finished Harry surprising all three of them.

"I'm not just a pretty face," he returned earning badly hidden snickers from the Wrights "I looked it up."

Fleur sent him a smile, happy that he had been researching her though she wasn't sure exactly why.

"Anyway," continued Jenny, attempting to hide her smile "Over the next few weeks will be teaching you everything we know about duelling, by the time we finish we want each of you to be able to beat both of us at once in a duel."

Harry gulped at the thought.

For the rest of the lesson they were introduced to a variety of exotic spells that they had not come across before and the concept of wordless magic, Fleur having already left school had already studied the art but was not very good at it and was in definite need of a refresher course.

At the end of the lesson they bid goodbye to the siblings and proceeded to today's sleeping quarters, thoughts of the day's lesson running through their minds.


	20. CH20 Take Four Leçons Françaises

Chapter 20 – Take Four: Leçons Françaises

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:31st July 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:Morning_

This time around Harry and Fleur were working separately, Fleur was going to Gringotts, she hadn't been to work in several days and she had a back log to catch up on, while Harry got French lessons from Viktor using Occlumency.

Harry found the experience fascinating, unlike when Snape entered his mind, Viktor, far from the brutal thrusting into his mind scanning his memories, was in fact placing his own memories in Harry's mind; it was like remembering long lost memories that that you didn't even know you had.

* * *

At five o'clock that evening the main fireplace flared as Fleur stepped through.

She looked exhausted, though she still some how managed to look regal and sophisticated, not to mention attractive to anyone that saw her.

Reaching the day's bedroom she collapsed onto the bed.

"Vous semblez terrible" You look terrible said a familiar voice in her native tongue.

Looking up she saw Harry leaning against the doorway.

"Did you juzt speak French?" she asked surprised, sitting up as she spoke.

"Oui Viktor a été transferring son mémorial à myself toute la journée ; il dit Je suis obtenir tout à fait facile." Yes, Viktor has been transferring his memories to me all day; he says I am getting quite fluent

Fleur, temporarily forgetting her exhausted state, jumped up and ran over to him giving him a congratulatory hug.

"Oh Arry," she said in French "Quite fluent is an understatement, you are speaking perfect Parisian."

"He also taught me how to speak common French and basic German and Bulgarian just encase I needed to camouflage myself."

"He told me that even once the memories were transferred it might take you days if not weeks to recall all his memories." she said astonished "How on earth did you learn so much in one day?"

"Don't know, nor does Viktor, all he said is that according to the Occlumens Council it should have taken weeks for someone of my skill level to take in all that knowledge, he says that if I am that good at taking on knowledge, learning Occlumency myself should proceed just as quickly."

Fleur stood stunned before finally moving to hug him again.

"You are truly unique Arry Potter."

She felt the sides of his mouth twist into a smile, pulling back slightly she could see him trying to hide a smile.

"What is it?"

"Nothing." He said with a smirk.

"Really, what is it?" she asked again, leaning down towards him.

"It's just; I find it funny that even in French you mispronounce my name." he said smiling.

Her face sank slightly.

"I thought, I though you liked my accent?" she said sounding slightly hurt.

"I do, I do, I wasn't meaning to be unkind." He apologised seeing how she had taken it.

She turned her back to him and brought her arms around herself.

He placed a hand on her shoulder but she shrugged it off.

"Fleur, you know I would never hurt you, I wasn't being unkind I was just….I like the way you pronounce my name, it's unique, no one else does it." that was a slight lie, Madam Maxime did it as well, though not as nicely.

She still kept her back to him.

"I'm sorry….I'll go." He turned his back to her and began walking out of the door.

"Arry." She called from behind him.

He turned to her she still had her back to him.

"Yes Fleur." he asked.

She turned her head so that it was over her shoulder, she was grinning.

Harry was stumped for a second before realising that he had been had.

"That wasn't nice." he scowled walking back to her.

"No," she said, giving him one of her hundred watt smiles "But it vaz fun."

"I'll have to think of someway to get you back." He said her smile instantly improving his mood.

She suddenly put on a very innocent look "Vhat are you going to do to beautiful little me?" she said jokingly, her expression resembling that of her sister.

Harry stood there for a minute thinking before a smile spread across his face "You're not ticklish are you."

Her face went very serious "Arry, don't even vink about it."

He started walking towards her, an evil glint in his eye.

"Arry, Arry don't pleaze no, Arry" she had backed up to the bed.

She made a leap to get to the other side but Harry was too quick and managed to grab her ankles and pulled her back into the middle of the bed causing her to shriek in surprise.

Pouncing on her he began tickling her mercilessly; enjoying the way she squirmed under his fingers….boy was she ticklish.

Just when he thought she would start begging to be let up he felt her becoming more attractive.

He mentally swore for not anticipating her Veela powers as they overcame his senses, becoming completely enthralled to the French beauty.

She rolled them over and returned the favour, now it was his turn.

After several minutes of rolling backwards and forwards they both collapsed, Fleur lying on top of Harry.

They both laughed at the absurdity of what had just happened as they stared at each other.

After the laughter had died down they remained staring into each others eyes.

They were interrupted by a small pop as a House Elf appeared with their dinner.

Reluctantly they rolled apart and moved to the table, Harry mentally kicking himself, he had wanted to kiss her, which was something he knew he couldn't do, he was a quest in this house and he would not abuse the Delacour's trust….or his friendship with Fleur.


	21. CH21 Take Five The Veela Colony

Chapter 21 – Take Five: The Veela Colony

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:31st July 2001 AD_

_Country:Romania – Carpathian Mountains _

_Location:The Veela Colony_

_Time:Morning_

This was Harry's fifth repeat of the 31st and today it was one of the few days when it wasn't just he, Fleur and the trainer (whoever it happened to be that time around).

Today he was going to start building his army, a prospect that he found more than a little scary.

Dimitri and Fleur had portkeyed them to a secret location, high up in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania.

It was the first time since being in mainland Europe that Harry actually felt cold, he was dressed in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt with numerous layers of jumpers and fleeces on top of that in an attempt to keep himself warm.

Fleur had decided that she was taking him on a shopping trip to get some new clothes as most of what he was wearing right now were Dudley's old things, with the exception of his Hogwarts jumpers and his school shoes.

The Delacour's on the other hand were dressed in a lot less, Dimitri was wearing just one jumper and a long black cloak that had a permanent temperature charm on it to keep your body at optimum temperature.

Fleur was dressed in a full length silver dress covered by a long matching coat with a fur collar and lining, also with another permanent temperature regulating charm on it, and while they both looked comfortable the warming charms they had cast on his clothes were not quite up to Carpathian Mountain standard.

They were currently walking up a deserted and very rough mountain path that apparently led to the largest of the Veela colonies in Europe.

Harry had spent a bit of time researching Veela in his forth year, after discovering that Fleur was one quarter-Veela, he hoped he would find a way to stop Ron staring at her every time she came into sight, but unless they managed to find out that somehow they were blood relatives, Ron had had it.

He had discovered a book called 'Magical Menagerie'. It was full of a complete listing of all magical creatures and beings that flew.

Flipping through the book until he reached the 'V' section he had ran his finger down the list until he reached the entry he wanted.

●_Valkyrie's_

●_Vampyre's_

●_Veela_

_Veela are a race of humanoid shape shifters, European folklore says that they can assume the form of falcons, hawks, snakes, swans, horses and wolves to name a few, but these are all theoretical forms as no living person has ever seen a Veela become one of these animals. One form that there is no doubt that Veela can transform into is that of a flying birdlike creature capable of throwing fireballs, this form is rumoured to be a close resemblance of their original appearance, it is not known whether the fireballs can be thrown when in human form. _

_Veela, distant relatives of Nymphs, are always women and although men can posses the gene they are merely carriers and do not posses any Veela traits._

_It has been noted that Veela are always exceptionally beautiful, possessing silvery blond hair and are one of the most desirable species of mate on the planet, they have the ability to temporarily become totally irresistible to men, women are however immune to their charms and tend to dislike Veela for the popularity with the opposite sex._

_Veela are very loyal to their partners and have never been known to cheat on them with others, this is true no matter how much Veela blood is present in their veins as the Veela gene is 'super-dominant' and surpasses all other genetic codes. _

_Veela are occasionally known to 'mate' with their partners. Despite what this sounds like it is actually a very deep magical bond that binds the souls and magical cores of the pair to each other for all time. It is a great honour to be chosen as a Veela's mate as less than one in ten of coupled Veela's mate. _

_Mating prevents either partner from ever even wanting to cheat with another being. While it considered something that never happens for an unmated Veela to cheat, for a mated Veela or Veela's partner to cheat is considered impossible._

_Veela are reported to be able to tell if they have found the person that would be their perfect mate and the few mated Veela this author has met all mated because they knew they had found their Soul-Mates. Considering the worlds population, this does help to explain the very limited number of mating's as it must be virtually impossible to find one person in the entire world._

_The link provides a telepathic bond between the two as well as a significant increase in power to both parties, the bond is a great strength as it allows the flow of magic, emotion and feelings between the two, but while it has its advantages the disadvantages must also be considered, if the link is broken or if one of the pair dies, the other will quickly follow the same fate._

_If a Veela is physically separated from her mate it can also cause death as the pair needs to be able to feel each other constantly._

_While Veela's are generally very kind and benevolent towards humans as well as being very desirable to men, they must also be treated with caution as while they are gently most of the time, if they get angry they can transform into their bird form and become a real threat._

_Veela are now very rare and only exist in small colonies in hidden locations in mountains around the world, this is because of xenophobia in the Wizarding World, during You-Know-Who's first reign many humanoid and non-humanoid species joined his side in hope of gaining better rights, while Veela were not among them they were treated with caution thereafter, forcing them into remote locations._

The book had then spoken at length about the origins of Veela, which was when Harry had begun to drift off.

Returning to the present Harry saw that they were approaching a village.

It appeared to be filled with what could best be described as round-houses.

Circular buildings with pointed roofs made out of natural materials filled the valley they had just entered.

They approached what appeared to be a sentry point, where two females stood in front of an opening in the low wall made out of wood that defined the edge of the colony; no weapons were visible in their hands or anywhere around them but from what Harry had read, they would not be necessary.

The sentries possessed the odd combination of appearing both dangerous and threatening while also appearing incredibly sexy, something Harry was trying hard to ignore, it was probably due the fact that they were dressed in little more than a pair of handkerchiefs and a loin cloth.

"Who approaches?" demanded one of them in Romanian who, thanks to a translation charm, Harry understood.

Dimitri stepped forward.

"Dimitri and Fleur Delacour accompanied by Harry Potter, the Matriarch is expecting us."

One of the Veela gestured for them to follow while the other remained at her post.

As they wandered through the Valley Harry noticed that almost the entire population was female and all of those females had the same silvery/blond hair that Fleur, her mother and sister possessed, they were also as attractive and some could even be considered more so than Fleur, though Harry didn't think so.

Quite a few of the females, Harry observed, were wearing no more than….well the best description would be a fifties cave girl outfit, the attire although very limited appeared to be a sort of uniform as all the females wearing them appeared to be on guard or patrolling.

There were also a large number of females in the village that were not wearing the strange uniform, those that weren't were mostly wrapped in furs like Fleur, though they seemed to be made into dresses rather than coats.

The few males that were in the village appeared perfectly normal, presumably they were either Male Carriers of the gene or husbands to some of the Veela women who lived in the village.

The houses had wooden walls that were carved into ornate shapes and grass roofs, all trimmed immaculately.

They colony itself was several hundred meters in diameter and in the centre there was a particularly large round-house which they approached.

The sentry instructed them to wait outside while she went in.

Several seconds later the sentry pushed aside the cloth covering the doorway and bade them to enter.

The inside of the structure was decorated in rich fabrics and furs; they covered every surface including the sealing, giving the room a warm feel.

At the far end of the circular room was a throne, in it sat a regal looking woman, her white/platinum hair flowed all the way to her hips, this was by far the longest hair Harry had seen so far in the village. She had a look of power about her, as well as the image of wisdom and strength, though she appeared to be no more than thirty five years of age, forty at the most.

Dimitri took the lead, while Fleur and Harry walked side by side behind him.

Upon reaching the throne Dimitri dropped to one knee and bowing his head. Harry did the same while Fleur curtsied.

The lady motioned for them to stand.

"Why have you come Dimitri?" she asked in French, her voice sounding almost ethereal.

"I have come about the matter we discussed two months ago." he explained

"I suspected as much," she turned to Harry, her eyes studying and examining him "This is the boy you spoke of."

Fleur bristled next to him as she called him boy.

"He is no boy Matriarch;" explained Dimitri, aware that his daughter was none to happy at the Matriarchs previous statement "He has been through far too much to be considered as such."

"Indeed," she said raising her eyebrows "Come forward Mr Potter."

Harry walked forward to stand immediately in front of the throne; he bowed his head in respect.

The Matriarch chuckled.

"A boy who knows how to be humble….a rare thing, raise your head."

Harry did so, raising his chin in an effort to look more imposing.

This earned another chuckle from the Matriarch.

"I have been told of your deeds Mr Potter, I have no doubt that you have courage, loyalty and honour, but you do not appear to have much physical or magical power. Tell me Mr Potter how did you manage to escape the Dark Lord during the Triwizard Tournament?"

Harry though of keeping the secret of the twin wands to himself, but rapidly decided that if he wanted the Veela on his side then he needed to be honest.

"My wand and Voldemort's have twin cores, when we attacked each other, our wands connected and battled each other for dominance, mine won causing his wand to regurgitate the last spells it performed. It conjured the images of Cedric, the other Hogwarts champion, my parents and a few others; they distracted Voldemort while I grabbed Cedric's body and recovered the portkey back to Hogwarts."

The Matriarch seemed to be considering what she had just been told.

"Your wand overpowered The Dark Lord….that shows that you have the potential for greatness….but until you can control the power that resides inside you….my people will not follow you."

Dimitri's face sunk in defeat.

They bowed and left in silence, downhearted by the first failure in recruitment.


	22. CH22 Take Six Birthday Surprises

Chapter 22 – Take Six: Birthday Surprises

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:31st July 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:Morning_

After returning from their failed mission the day before, Harry hadn't wanted to talk to anyone, deciding instead to study his text books for the next year which had been bought for him by the Delacour's. He has promised to pay them back but they had refused quite strongly.

He had read late and only stopped when Fleur came in and told him that it was time for their last jump of that day.

Going through the usual temporal training ritual he performed at night he awoke at five thirty AM the next morning still feeling as bad as he had when they had left the colony.

It was all his fault, he was not good enough, if it hadn't been for him they would have the support of the Veela.

He laid on his back with Fleur snuggled up to his side until eight when Fleur began to rouse.

"Morning Arry." she said giving him a slight hug, which she combined with a stretch.

Harry always thought that she looked so beautiful sleeping, no make up (not that she used or needed any), no stylised hair, nothing just Fleur as she looked naturally, she always looked so innocent and care free.

Dragging herself out of bed she slid off the bed onto the floor, before gliding (or at least that's how it always looked to Harry) off to the bathroom.

When she returned Harry was still lying on his back staring at the canopy.

"Arry, are you alright?"

He rolled out of the bed.

"Fine." He said absently not really paying attentions as he went to take his turn in the bathroom.

Fleur watched him sadly as he entered the bathroom; she had guessed his mood was a result of yesterday's disappointment with the Veela, She didn't blame the Matriarch for her refusal, she had to think about what was best for her people.

She had to try to think of someway to improve his mood; she remained standing and slipped her dress over her head while she attempted to think of a solution.

After several seconds her eyes widened at a memory, she ran to the night stands and quickly rifled through the draws until she found a calendar.

Flipping through the pages she reached July and began counting days, as she completed her calculation her eyes widened accompanied by a look of annoyance as she mentally scolded herself for forgetting.

Replacing the calendar she ran towards the door, skidding to a halt at the door before returning to grab the Time Turner.

She bolted out of the door completely forgetting to put on any shoes.

* * *

Harry emerged from the bathroom several minutes after he had entered; he thought he had heard the door open.

Re-entering the bedroom he was just in time to see Fleur walk back into the room, looking considerably more awake than she did just minutes before.

"Is everything alright?" he asked dabbing his wet hair.

"Everything is Fine Arry," she reassured him "But I have something I would like to show you though, please get dressed quickly."

She walked over to the wardrobe and pulled out a pair of high healed shoes.

She then did something Harry thought was very strange, she picked up her wand and began to transfigure her appearance, her long straight silvery/blond hair turned red (a deeper shade than that of the Weasley's), curled and got several inches shorter reducing so that it was only just past her shoulders, her facial features changed as well, her eyes turned brown and her nose and lips changed their shape slightly.

If Harry had not seen her just change he wouldn't even know it was the same person.

Standing Harry could also see that she was also slightly shorter than him whereas she usually she was about half an inch taller, her dress also, far from being another of Fleur's beautiful silver or light blue numbers, was now in fact light blue, but unlike her normal attire, it was not plane, but was rather covered in attractive yellow flowers, giving her a slightly younger look, making her appear to be around his age.

She looked a bit like a cross between Hermione, Ginny and his mother.

"What's all that for?" he asked confused.

She turned to him and went to speak, remembering something she paused and pointed her wand at her throat before continuing.

"It's to allow me to go unnoticed, otherwise people will know who you are staying with." she explained in perfect English.

"Fleur this is supposed to be our day off." he reminded her as he did up the lace on his trainers.

"It is, but we can hardly have fun when everyone is asking you questions about being seen with me." she explained.

Harry accepted the explanation as she took his hand and led him out of the room to the main fireplace in the lounge.

"Where are we going?" he asked as she picked up a handful of Floo Powder.

"It's a surprise Harry, just remember if anyone asks, my name is April and you are staying with me and my parents, don't tell them any more than that...oh yes, and I am your girlfriend."

With that she threw the powder into the fire, said:

"Safe House."

And pulled him into the fire before he even had the chance to object or ask a question.

* * *

Harry always found Floo travel particularly horrible, he did not know if it was just him ot something that happened to a lot of people, but he always ended up getting thrown out at the other end.

Which was exactly what happened this time.

He and Fleur, or rather April (as she had been holding on to him), crashed out of the fireplace at the far end, landing hard on an old oak floor.

"SURPRISE," he heard several voices yell "HAPPY BIRTHDAY."

"Birthday...whose?" he asked confused as he clambered to his feet.

"Yours silly." he heard a very familiar female voice say before he was engulfed in a hug by what looked like a mane of wavy brown hair.

"Hermione?" he asked confused.

"Who else." she answered brightly, pulling back only for him to be engulfed by a shorted mane of red hair.

"Oh Harry," he heard Ginny whisper "I though I'd lost you."

Harry noted her use of the word I.

He hugged her back whispering his reply, quickly adapting to the idea that he was no longer in hiding "I'm ok Gin...thanks to you."

He was sure he heard her sniffle.

"Oh come on Ginny he was only missing a couple of days," he heard what he thought to be one of the twins say "Your acting as though he almost died."

He glanced at Fleur who mouthed "They don't know.", nodding his understanding he released Ginny and looked at the room for the first time, they were in what appeared to be a wood cabin, not more than fifteen meters square containing a kitchen, a bathroom, several arm chairs and sofas, a long table covered in food, another table covered in presents, a wizard radio and about twenty people.

Apart from Hermione and Ginny he could see the twins, Ron, Bill, Charlie, Neville, Luna, Tonks, Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet, Oliver Wood, Lee Jordan and Viktor.

Above their heads or beside them in the case of Viktor and the Weasley's males was a banner saying.

_HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRY_

He was rapidly greeted by all as they all started hugging him, shaking hands with him or smacking him on the back if you were Viktor or one of the twins.

"When?...How?...What?" he managed to splutter out at the sight before him.

"This very attractive girlfriend of yours Harry," explained Bill "Came to The Burrow in secret last night and told Ginny about the surprise party, Ginny quickly told the rest of us younger Weasley's..."

"And we told out girlfriends." chanted the twins in unison directing their gaze towards Katie and Angelina.

"And we told Oliver and Alicia." the Katie continued.

"And I told Lee." added Oliver.

"While Ron and Ginny contacted Neville and Luna." finished Hermione.

"And what about you three?" asked Harry pointing at Tonks, Hermione and Viktor, interested to hear how Viktor had been included.

"April came to my house and got me personally," explained Hermione "It gave my parents a bit of a shock to see her on our doorstep at eleven O'clock in the evening."

"It took me half an hour to convince her that you were safe and that I was who I said I was." smirked Fleur.

He saw Hermione blush out of the corner of his eye.

"And I was with Bill at the time," explained Tonks with a seductive grin, dare he ask what they were doing, at least Mrs. Weasley's finally got her wish about the two of them being together "And I suggested contacting Fleur and her sister, unfortunately they were busy and couldn't come but Viktor was there and he agreed immediately."

Harry had to resist the urge to laugh as Fleur shifted slightly next to him.

"We didn't dare bring anyone else as they would probably tell Dumbledore," explained Tonks "And you do not need to worry Harry, I will not tell him that I saw you, as far as I am concerned if I do find you after tonight, it will be the first time I have seen you all summer….it also does not help that I do not have a clue where you are staying, where we are now or that I do not have a wand as your girlfriend has confiscated mine."

He saw Fleur blush beside him and suppressed a chuckle, it was very hard to get Fleur to blush.

"I see." he nodded, accepting the explanation, "But I am supposed to be in hiding and aren't your parents going to realise that you're gone?"

"I'm going to take care of that Harry," explained April; he had a feeling she would use The Time Turner but couldn't say it out loud encase the others heard "I have also forbidden them to talk about where you are staying or anything of the sort."

"She has," agreed Fred "Wizard Oaths…."

"At wand point." added George.

"It was a bit scary." nodded Viktor; Harry never knew he was such a good actor.

"Trust you Harry to find a girlfriend who looks cute, but can also appear more dangerous than a pair of dragons in heat." joked Hermione.

Fleur shuffled her feet embarrassed as the others chuckled.

"Anyway, enough chat," said Fred before his brother took over "Its present time."

Half an hour later Harry had finally managed to wade through all the presents he had received, there were more presents than people, the Weasley's had brought their parents gifts with them.

Among the masses of presents he had received some of the more notable ones included:

A Weasley jumper (of course) this time displaying the Tri Wizard Cup, which Harry and most of the other believed had not been well though out by Mrs Weasley.

An array of chocolates and sweets including a 3D Chocolate Dragon, that bites, flies and breaths liquid chocolate. Hagrid always had a good sense of humour, he had apparently given the present to the Weasley's in the hope that they would contact him.

A book entitled 'The Greatest Quidditch Players Of All Time' from Ron, looking to the back to see the most recent entries and gave a big smile to see the five most recent entries:

_Viktor Krum _

Obviously.

_Oliver Wood._

_Katie Bell._

_Angelina Johnson._

_Alicia Spinnet. _

They had all been accepted by league teams.

And below that Ron had written

_Harry Potter. _

This earned laughs and sounds of agreement from most of the assembled group.

Hermione gave him a book (of course) on Duelling, obvious planning for next years DA sessions, assuming that they continued teaching after they get rid of Umbridge.

Viktor gave him a book entitled 'How To Get The Physique Of A Quidditch Player' which Harry found fairly amusing considering the fact that Viktor was built more like a Beater than a Seeker.

The twins gave him a complete set of their stock along with a very generous free gift of one hundred Weasley's Wizard Wheezes Shares which were apparently sky rocketing, they were in fact doing so well that since they started trading last year the shares had gone up from a knut to a sickle.

Tonks gave him a book called 'The Auror Training Guide', thanking her, he mentally noted to read it very soon.

The Quidditch Players and Commentator (Lee) had been caught of guard, not expecting to be attending a party had run around very quickly to grab presents and had not done badly considering the short notice. Collectively they gave him a quaffle signed by all the members of the old and current Gryffindor Quidditch Team along with Lee's name as the commentator, and a set of robes from each of their teams; Puddlemere United from Oliver, The Falmouth Falcons from Angelina and The Chudley Cannons (much to Ron's approval) from Katie and Alicia who had both apparently been selected as Chasers for the team which they would join when they finished Hogwarts in a years time. 

Luna and Neville, who were apparently a couple, had given him a little Globe that Harry thought was a Remembrall.

"I might be sixteen Neville but my memory is not that bad yet." He joked, earning chuckles and giggles from those around him.

"It's not a Remembrall Harry, it's a Feelings Sphere, it works like a Remembrall but you can choose what emotion you want stored in it." Neville looked proud at his own knowledge which earned him a kiss on the cheek from Luna. "All you do is get whatever feeling you want stored within it centred in your mind then tap the ball with your wand and say 'remember' and that emotion will be stored within it."

"When you touch it," Luna continued "You will feel the emotion stored within, my father thinks they were originally made by a secret group of wizard's intent on stealing emotions in an attempt to gain control over them before using them to overthrow the Wizarding World."

Harry smiled; it was one of the best presents he had been given; now he just had to think what to store within it.

Bill's present was probably the biggest surprise and earned the most laughs, it was the latest Chocolate Frog Card….and guess who it was of.

It read:

_Harry James Potter_

_Harry Potter, born 31st July 1980, best known as The-Boy-Who-Lived. When he was but one year old he defeated the Dark Lord, more commonly referred to as You-Know-Who. He currently attends Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft And Wizardry in Scotland, his time there so far has been far from quiet. He has saved the Philosophers Stone, rescued a fellow student from a Basilisk and has won The Triwizard Tournament as the forth contestant, a contest that he shouldn't have been able to enter because he was underage, and he has led a party of fellow students which he trained to duel illegally into the Department Of Mysteries, where he rescued and saved a prophecy from the hands of the Dark Lord who he also told the world was back, even when no one but his Headmaster Albus Dumbledore would listen. We expect great things of Harry Potter._

Bill explained that they were only going to make around one hundred of these cards as it was a limited edition due to the fact that he was still young which meant his information would need changing.

He got down to his final three presents; he opened the largest first, it was from Charlie.

Opening it up, a piece of material fell to the floor with a thud.

Picking it up, he could see that it was in fact a beautiful black cloak, and a very strange one at that, it was heavier than most materials and thicker.

As he opened it several people gasped.

"Is that what I think it is?" asked Tonks moving forward to feel the material.

"That depends on what you think it is." smiled Charlie.

Feeling the material Harry noticed that the outer side was made up of small hard plates, all roughly diamond shaped and no more than five centimetres in length. The interior lining was made of very fine dark red silk, it was probably one of the finest materials he had ever felt.

"It's a dragon hide cloak." explained Hermione in awe as she moved next to Tonks to feel the cloak, most of the others also moved forward, never having scene a cloak like this.

"Can you guys stop fondling my cloak for a minute and back up? I am feeling a bit claustrophobic here."

There were several apologises as Hermione, Tonks and the rest moved back.

"This sort of cloak is very rare Harry." explained Hermione "And are very expensive to buy, almost as rare and expensive as invisibility cloaks."

"Unless you work at a Dragon sanctuary," smiled Charlie "Then you can get the scales from the source. We normally sell the cloaks we make to help maintain the sanctuary, but the rest of the staff from the reserve and I thought you deserved this as a reward for getting passed that Horntail."

"Thanks." smiled Harry has he ran his hands over the surface.

"We apologise for it being so late but we had to wait for the Horntail to shed enough of the right size scales to make it, the scales that go into gloves are shed all the time, these scales are shed at a rate of about one or two a week."

"These scales are from the Horntail I faced?" asked Harry.

"Yes," confirmed Charlie "We though it would be ironic for the scales of the creature that tried to kill you to now be protecting you."

"Dragon scales are virtually impenetrable Harry." explained Hermione "And Horntails have some of the hardest scales there are. They are impervious to blades, bullets, magic, fire, in fact almost anything you can think of."

Harry was astonished; with the exception of his invisibility cloak he had never owned anything so exquisite.

"I don't know what to say." exclaimed Harry.

"Try 'thank you'." giggled April.

"Thank you Charlie." He smiled as April took the cloak and slipped it around his shoulders before doing up the clasp.

That left two presents; he opened the largest first.

* * *

Ginny was terrified, he was down to the last two presents and was about to open hers.

After he had sent her that thank you letter she had come to the conclusion that yes, she was still in love with Harry, much to her annoyance.

What made it worse was that she knew that April was really Fleur but more importantly she seriously doubted that Fleur would assume the role of a girlfriend if there was not something behind it.

That made her challenge all the harder, after Fleur had told her about the party she had taken them all on a secret trip to Diagon Alley to allow them to buy presents, she had to find something really impressive or really personal to show Harry her feelings.

She had finally found something, but had had to borrow heavily from the twins to get it.

She just prayed it did what it was supposed to.

* * *

Inside the packaging was a small box, containing a model of a Phoenix with its wings spread.

Made out of silver, the craftsmanship was incredible, the way that rubies had been set in the birds head as the eyes while every single feather seemed to be carved individually, each somehow managing to look both silver and the colour of the feather on the real animal.

As soon as he touched it, it came to life and gave out a sweet note, its wings flapped slightly before returning to its original posture.

Harry pulled it out of the box, to find it attached to a chain, which he instantly slipped over his head.

Before looking at the youngest Weasley.

"Thank you Gin." He said giving her a hug, before turning to his last present.

No one seemed to notice the look of relief on Ginny's face as he had put on the necklace or the excitement when he had called her Gin, a name that she hated being called so much that the last boy to call her it had been on the receiving end of her infamous Bat-Bogey Hex, they hadn't been able to remove the hex for over an hour, no one had dared call her Gin since.

No one except Fleur though to much into the fact that Ginny was giving Harry a necklace, they all knew that Ginny had feelings for him, Fleur's suspicions on the other hand were raised immediately upon seeing the piece of jewellery, there was magic on it, she could sense it, but she did not know what, she wondered what the youngest Weasley was up to.

Her attention was brought back to the present as Harry opened her gift.

It, like Ginny's was a small and square, though slightly smaller, everyone had got closer when he began opening this present, interested to see what his girlfriend had got him.

Opening the box Harry discovered a small crystal set in a band of silver with intricate inscriptions had been written around it.

"It is a soul ring," explained Fleur, causing Hermione and several of the other females present to gasp "Inside it is a bit of my magic, it will allow you to feel me even when we are apart, it also changes colour depending on my mood or feelings at the time."

* * *

Ginny's felt like her heart had just been ripped out.

She had been trumped.

After spending all that time thinking what to get him and finally finding something that he would love, she had been beaten at the last hurdle by that French tart.

Now she really hoped that the necklace did as it was intended.

* * *

Fleur took the box from him and extracted the ring, Harry held out his left hand, allowing Fleur to slip it onto his third finger.

He looked at the ring on his finger for several seconds seeing the crystal changing from its clear state to green.

He looked at her questioningly.

"Happiness." she explained moving to give him a peck on the cheek.

In a moment of mental insanity for which he had no explanation, he intercepted her mouth with his own pulling her into a kiss.

Fleur was startled as Harry kissed her, she wasn't complaining, but she thought Harry was too noble to even conceive of the idea of kissing someone without written consent of both them and every other living family member the other party had.

Lots of cheering and wolf whistles could be heard in the background while the pair kissed, there were no tongues, it wasn't passionate but it was nice as the brighter green on Harry's ring proved.

As they separated Harry, realising that they had to keep the fact that they were not a couple a secret, he did his uttermost not to be appalled by his actions, he had just kissed her.

Luckily someone turned the wizard radio as others pulled him to his feet, saving him from trying to think how on Earth he was going to avoid being chastised by Dimitri and Delphine, not to mention Fleur, he really did not want to get in the way of an angry Veela.

For the next three hours Harry was pulled around the cabin by the various girls (though noticeably not Ginny) who seemed determined not to let him sit down for a moment, at one point he thought he had escaped as the twins grabbed him, but this ended up with him being pulled into a can-can line.

He finally managed to make a break for it towards the food table about four hours after his arrival, only to find himself coming face to face with Hermione, who look happy but also noticeably thoughtful.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked as he picked up a stick and stabbed a chocolate profiterole before holding it under the chocolate fountain that the twins had brought with them, apparently they had been looking into Muggle artefacts for ideas, unfortunately that included watching a lot of TV comedy sketches, he wondered how long it would be before they finished every sentence with 'Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.' Harry pulled his mind back to present as Hermione moved to answer his question.

"I'm just wondering who your girlfriend really is?" she said keeping her eyes on him, watching his reaction.

Harry paused as he was about to bring the profiterole up to his mouth, instead letting it get drenched in chocolate (not necessarily a bad thing).

"Why do you think April isn't my girlfriend," he asks carefully "Aren't I handsome enough?" he said jokingly trying to move away from the subject.

"Oh you're handsome enough," she said shyly, not used to commenting on her friend's appearance "But I have been watching her and she doesn't seem quiet right."

Harry followed her gaze to where Fleur was chatting to Krum; Harry silently prayed that Hermione didn't put two and two together as the pair talked.

"Firstly she looked slightly surprised when you kissed her," Harry mentally cursed himself again for doing that "She also keeps misjudging things, she has only been slightly less clumsy than Tonks so far, she just hides it well, and lastly she is presumably who you are staying with and as I believe that you wouldn't become romantically involved with anyone that you had known for less than two weeks I am led to assume that A. She is someone you already know and B. She is using either charms or a Polyjuice potion to alter her appearance, which is why she seems to be so clumsy, as she is not used to the body,"

Harry mentally cursed Hermione's brain, she had seen through the disguise since the beginning.

"And don't try telling me I am wrong Harry Potter." She said firmly.

Harry realising that she already knew with 100 certainty that she was right, rapidly he tried to think up an answer, after several seconds he settled on a solution.

"You will find out who she is on the first day of school," he told her, by then it wouldn't mater if he told them as would no longer be staying with the Delacour's, the glimmer of an idea crossed his mind as a way to distract Hermione from the subject.

"Mrs Weasley." he added.

Hermione almost sprayed out her drink at his last comment.

"Harry….we're not…." She began spluttering; now it was Harry's turn to make her feel uncomfortable.

"Hermione, I have known you and Ron since our first day of school, I have been noticing the signs for an entire year, if only one of you would get up the courage and ask the other out, you could stop the dance that you two have been doing around each other since you started school."

Hermione opened and closed her mouth several times before regaining her composure, picking up a cocktail sausage and smiling at him "Happy birthday Harry.", with that she walked back onto the dance floor.

Harry breathed a sigh of relief.

"You ok dear."

He jumped so hard that he sent the profiterole flying, causing it to land, by some pure fluke, on the plate containing profiteroles; the throw though did leave him with chocolate splashes on his fingers, where the stick had landed before rolling onto the table.

"Jumpy Harry?" asked April teasingly, wrapping her arms around him from behind.

"Please don't do that." he requested looking down at her arms around him, not quite sure if he should be breathing in sharply or relaxing and breathing out.

"Why, it was fun, it means I get to clean you up." she said reaching for his chocolate covered fingers, taking them into her mouth one at a time.

Harry had to resist the urge to moan as she ran her beautiful tongue over his digits, then the urge to blush as a pair of wolf whistles emanated from the other side of the room.

When she finished the last one she reached for Harry's dropped stick and picked up his profiterole, twirling it ensure that she lost none of the chocolate, she (thanks to her transformation for giving her a slightly bigger mouth) in one swift and well planned movement slipped the chocolate covered globe into her mouth, moaning in pleasure at the taste.

"Remind me to buy one of those." she said around the profiterole pointing the stick at the fountain.

Harry was not quite sure if he should be worried or impressed by Fleur, in real life she would never lick chocolate of his fingers (not that he would object if she did) or eat a profiterole whole, which meant that either she was a very good actor or she was flirting with him.

He quickly decided that the latter would only ever happen in his dreams.

"What were you and your friend talking about?" she asked moving in front of him replacing her arms around his middle.

"Hermione knows you're not who you say you are."

Looking temporarily surprised before a smile crept onto her lips.

"How did she know?" she asked.

Harry explained what he has just been told, watching Fleur's smile grow as he repeated Hermione's points.

"Viktor was right, she really is intelligent," she said glancing over to where Hermione and Viktor were now dancing with Ron glaring at him from the sidelines "What did you tell her?"

"I said I would tell her who you really are when I return to school as it means that you and your parents will not have to worry about the housing being invaded on a rescue mission if Dumbledore finds out."

Fleur nodded as a slow paced song came on, she looked at what had been christened the dance floor, where Neville and Luna, Bill and Tonks and Viktor and Hermione (much to Ron's annoyance) were slowly rotating.

A smile spread on her face as she looked up at Harry and pulled him onto the dance floor.

Harry looked at Fleur nervously as she put her hands around his neck, seeing his nervousness she reached down and but his hands on her back before replacing her hands and moving close to him.

Harry was as stiff as a plank, he was terrified and in an impossible situation, he desperately wanted to move closer to Fleur, taking advantage of the situation at hand, but he also wanted to pull back to avoid ruining there friendship, but most worryingly he could not do either of these things because if her moved forward, Fleur would definitely feel his 'wand' poking into her stomach, and likewise he couldn't move back as the rest of the room would see the reaction his 'wand' was having.

In the end they ended up with Fleur's head resting against his chest while he awkwardly rested his on top of hers.

The party continued for several more hours, he only began to worry about two hours later when the twins and Ron began asking about April and whether they had got passed kissing yet, luckily Hermione came to his aid and managed to bail him out.

By the time the sun had set the, party had finally begun to wind down and the others thought that is was best to call it a day.

April took them outside in groups blindfolded them then using a portkey and the Time Turner as the same time, returning them when they left without them ever knowing.

Finally it was just the two of them.

"Thanks for that." he said drawing Fleur who still looks like April into a hug.

"After seeing how down you looked this morning, I thought you could use a little cheering up, so I used the Time Turner and got all your friends together, unfortunately I only really knew about the Weasley's and the Granger girl, I have to admit that I had not expected that many to turn up, but then again I was forgetting whose party it was." she finished with a giggle, something else that was unlike Fleur.

"Thank you again, it was a wonderful surprise, though it does explain why you looked so much more awake when I re-entered the bedroom."

"I'm not surprised, I had been up for over four hours by then." she smiled, her eyes coming to rest upon the Phoenix around his neck.

"I thought that the Weasley's were….were…..a bit short on money?" she asked carefully, trying to avoid making the question sound insulting.

"They are, well...all except Fred and George; they are rolling in it, as those shares prove."

"Yes they do seem to be doing well, I was just wondering how Miss Weasley managed to afford this, it must have cost a small fortune."

"I have to admit that I was a little surprised." agreed Harry, picking the necklace up between his fingers, examining it closely "I wonder what made her think to buy me a necklace."

"Probably the same thing that made me make you a ring." she replied with a smile whilst looking straight into his eyes.

Harry opened his mouth to ask about the ring but was prevented as she kept speaking.

"Come on Harry, the evening has not even begun," she said brightly, pulling him towards the fireplace, all his presents (bar his cloak) had been shrunken down and were now inside a small bag in Fleur's other hand.

As soon as he was through the other side she walked him up to their room where an expensive looking set of black tie evening dress was hanging from the end of the bed.

"What is that for?" he asked cautiously, not quite sure if he wanted to know the answer.

"That iz for you Arry, ve are going out to dinner." her French accent and Veela looks returned as she undid the charms upon herself.

She picked up the suit and walked back to him.

"After all, it vas you who zaid that I invited you to show you zome proper food."

"That was just so that your sister didn't ask questions."

"Tough," she said grinning, handing him the hanger and directing him to the bathroom, while she went towards the requirements room letting it become a second bathroom which she walked into carrying another hanger, though the garment was concealed inside the white plastic cover.

Inside the bathroom he found a box with a note from Dimitri.

_If you are going out to dinner you may need this_

_Dimitri_

He opened the accompanying box; inside was a comb made out of ivory, looking slightly confused Harry walked over to the mirror, wanting to see what miracle the comb was going to perform on his hair.

He ran it through his hair from front to back and was astonished to see that the hair stayed back, he tried it again, the same result, he looked at the comb as if it were the Holy Grail and made a mental note to thank Dimitri later.

Realising that he probably didn't have much time he quickly removed his clothes and showered, about ten minutes later he emerged from the bathroom, his hair back and dry (another effect of the comb), dressed in one of the most expensive sets of clothes he had ever seen let alone dreamed of wearing.

As he exited the bathroom he saw Fleur brushing her hair at the dressing table on the other side of the room.

When she heard him enter, she looked at him in the mirror before standing and turning to him.

She looked amazing, her hair flowing elegantly over her shoulders, rolling down her back, the dress was equally as incredible, like a lot of Fleur's dresses it was silver, made out of silk, with two thin straps holding it on her shoulders, it rode low at the front showing off her exquisite cleavage, and the back rose no higher than her hips leaving her back completely bare, there were no distinguishing features to the dress, it was simplicity itself, but somehow it made her look even more like and angel than usual.

* * *

Fleur gazed at the man standing before her, he looked wonderful, black really suited him, showing off his rapidly returning athletic form, his hair also for the first time she could remember was combed back and not waving around his face wildly, she would have to remember to thank her father for buying the comb.

"Wow, you look….you look…." he attempted.

She walked over to him slowly.

"Thank you, kind sir." she said in a regal tone, straightening his bowtie slightly "You look very handsome yourself."

"Where are we going?" he asked.

"I'll tell you when we get there, but first I have a much more important Question?"

"Yes?" he asked curiously, albeit slightly wearily.

She took a few steps back.

"Do you prefer my hair up or down?"

"I'm sorry?" he said, wondering if she was being serious.

"Do you prefer my hair up or down?" she asked again, holding her hair up behind her head in demonstration.

Harry thought for a moment before answering:

"Down….definitely down."

She let go of her hair allowing it to fall back to its original place, leaving no evidence that it had all just been bunched up.

"That's what I though." she said smiling, walking to his side.

Thinking on his feat Harry held out his arm to her which she took with a smile before leading the way out.

"While we are out Arry, you better not speak English, it will help disguise you."

"It's a shame I can't get rid of the scar." he joked.

"That's not a bad idea." she commented, stopping him by a conveniently placed mirror and drawing her wand, she screwed up her eyes in concentrations and muttered something in Latin which Harry did not catch.

Harry felt his forehead tingle followed by his hair, looking at himself in the mirror he could see that not only had his scar disappeared but his hair had also got slightly lighter and had grown so that it was now about the same length as Bill's and was now tied back, Harry wondered if there was something in this similarity, he also wondered if she was transfiguring him to be more like what she looked for in a man….not that she would look at him anyway.

"There, that should suffice." she concluded in French, smiling at her handy work "I don't think those charms will conceal your scar for more than a few hours before the its magic undoes the spells, but the rest should last until you stop them.

He ran his fingers over the place were his scar had been, even though there was no indentation he could still feel it, a permanent reminder of his past, of who he was, but significantly, tonight he and Fleur were the only ones that knew that.

Turning to her he gave her a gentle hug, not wanting to crease her dress.

"Thank you."

She smiled at him.

"Tonight, you are no longer the Boy-Who-Lived….you are just Arry."

Offering his arm again they walked down the stairs and passed into the sitting room where Delphine, Dimitri and a portkey was waiting for them, after wishing them a pleasant evening and exchanging a knowing look Delphine and Dimitri left to go and eat their own dinner, while the pair portkeyed out.


	23. CH23 Take Six A Meal For Two

Chapter 23 – Take Six: A Meal For Two

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:31st July 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera - The Base of the Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Unknown French Town._

_Time:Evening_

They landed in an alley between two buildings.

Fleur, after giving Harry the portkey (a wallet) to put in one of his pockets, led him out of the alley around the corner to a very expensive looking Muggle restaurant.

Harry was reluctant to enter, afraid to even touch anything.

As soon as they entered the Maitre'd greeted them.

"Mademoiselle Delacour, it's a pleasure to have you back with us."

"Thank you Jean." She replied with a smile.

"May I ask who this fine young gentleman is?" he asked turning to Harry.

"This is…." Fleur began.

"James Evans." Harry improvised, thinking it a better disguise not to go by his real name.

Fleur looked at him curiously for a second before realising what he was doing.

"A pleasure Sir." smiled the Maitre'd.

"Likewise." Harry returned.

The Maitre'd turned back to Fleur.

"Would you care for your usual table Mademoiselle?"

"Not this time Jean, can we have a quite table for two please."

"I have just the one," he said with a smile "This way please."

The restaurant was a bit like a hotel, very high ceilings with intricate decorations and rich red drapes and curtains.

They followed him up a wide flight of stairs onto the first floor, where they were presented with a small table by a window, the view looked out over what Harry guessed was the Mediterranean Sea.

"Here we are Monsieur, Mademoiselle."

Jean pulled back the chairs for them and moved to Fleur's to allow her to sit down.

Harry intercepted him and Jean gave him a knowing nod, leaving the pair to decide on their meal choices.

Fleur smiled at Harry as he slid her chair in for her before moving to his own and sitting down.

Scanning the menu Harry realised that although he could now speak fluent French, his reading was some what lacking, he had asked Viktor about this and had discovered that he wasn't too good at reading the language either.

"What would you like Harry?" asked Fleur brightly.

"A translation." he said embarrassed.

Fleur giggled slightly before beginning to translate the menu for him; unfortunately he seemed to forget the translation almost as soon as she had said it.

"Actually Fleur I think you'd better decide, you're a better at this than I am."

Fleur smiled at him turning to Jean who was just returning to the table and giving him the order, Harry missed most of it, while he now new French fairly well he couldn't translate quite as fast as they were speaking.

The only thing he got for certain was.

"1938 Burgundy."

As soon as Jean left Fleur turned to Harry with a curious expression on her face.

"James Evans?"

"My father's first name and my mother's maiden name."

She nodded her understanding.

"How often do you come here?" he asked as he picked up a roll.

"Every few weeks, the Delacour's are well known in both Muggle and Wizarding France, so it's expected for us to make public appearances," she took a delicate sip of water "I prefer this restaurant to many of the Wizarding ones, firstly because I am not as well recognised but mainly because they appreciate digression and considering that we are frequent and very generous customers, they always keep several isolated tables free."

Looking around Harry noticed for the first time that there was no one within about ten meters of them; he also noticed that the few men occupying the tables just outside of that distance where either glaring at him or staring at Fleur, much to their partner's annoyance.

They chatted quietly until Jean returned with the wine.

He handed Harry the cork as Fleur watched in amusement at Harry's ignorance, luckily Jean was not watching him as he was poring the wine.

Never having tasted wine, Harry was a bit suspicious; he cautiously sniffed the dark red liquid, Fleur giggled at him.

"Have you never tasted wine Arry?"

"No, the only alcohol I have ever drunk is butterbeer."

Fleur cringed in disgust.

"That drink should not even be considered alcohol, wine is a more civilised drink, and wine tasting is an art, let me show you what to do."

"Ok." he answered curiously.

"First you look at the wine, preferably against a white background," she moved her glass next to the table cloth, Harry followed suit "For red wines you want to be able so see as much colour as possible, but not so much so that it is brown because that can indicated that it is not suitable for dogs. As you can see this wine is a light red which, for a Burgundy is a good thing, indicating that it is an old wine, meaning that it should taste better. Now tilt the glass to look at the edge, what colour do you see?"

"It's... a sort of brownish orange."

"Yes, this indicates that it is mature, if it was young it would be purple, now gently swirl the wine, as you can see this wine has a thicker body, or as you English might say 'good legs', along with a slightly higher alcohol level, now take a quick sniff as to make an initial impression, then take a nice long one."

He did as she instructed, trying hard not to think about her good legs.

"It smells...slightly spicy."

"Good, now take a small sip."

Harry did so.

"It tastes...it tastes..." he attempted, trying to find the right word.

"Go on." she encouraged.

"...expensive." he tried lamely.

She laughed gently.

"Oh Arry...we will have to refine your wine tasting skills later."

As she finished speaking the starters arrived, a plate was set in front of him, he didn't have the faintest idea what it was.

"Errr...Fleur."

"Yes Ar….James." she asked correcting herself and finishing the delicate mouthful she had just taken.

"What is this?" he asked giving it a slight prod.

" Bouillon de poule with grated black truffles."

He looked at it for a few seconds.

"The only bit I understood was grated black truffles."

She laughed again.

"Do not worry James, you will like it, trust me."

He did trust her; he just didn't trust the contents of his plate.

He very cautiously ate a mouthful, to his surprise he discovered that he quiet liked it, taking another bite; he turned his full attention to the meal.

"See." said Fleur smugly.

Two hours later Harry sat there thinking he could not eat another bite. After the Bouillon de poule and truffle, they had had roasted trance of foie gras with caramelised endives, then lobster tortellini with a herb velouté and crustacé vinaigrette, followed by pan fried fillet of St. Pierre with a light coriander nage, then the main coarse; roast saddle of lamb with sautéed salsify baby spinach and a glorious thyme sauce (which turned out to be the one thing so far on the menu that Harry understood the contents of...mostly) and finally finished with caramelised Granny Smith apple compote with natural yogurt and granité, and dark Valhrona chocolate parfait with milk ice cream.

"That was wonderful." smiled Harry, leaning back in his chair.

"I knew you would like it," she said smiling "Come let us go for a walk, I know a lovely place by the sea."

She placed a credit card on the plate containing the bill, which Jean quickly collected and then returned.

Bidding Jean farewell Fleur moved to get up, Harry almost knocked over his seat in an attempt to get to hers, causing her to giggle.

"You are already a gentleman Harry; you do not need to try to impress me."

"Sorry," he apologised getting to her chair and pulling it back for her "I just don't want to look like a fool in front of a beautiful woman."

It took him a couple of seconds for him to realise what he had said, he froze halfway through tucking her chair back in.

Fleur gave a satisfied smile, then pretended to not have heard him.

Leading him out of the restaurant they walked down a couple of streets onto the shore front, leaving only a beach between them and the sea.

"It's beautiful, is it not?" She sighed, leaning on the wall that separated the pavement from the beach.

"Oh yes."

Harry's eyes lingered on Fleur as he answered.

Looking up they could see the moon drift out from behind one of the few clouds in the night's sky, giving the sky a pleasant glow, intermixed with the twinkling of stars.

"It's such a nice night," she commented smiling "A very good night for stargazing"

"Yeah," he agreed not really listening.

His complete attention was focused on the radiant beauty beside him, leaning lightly against the wall, her silver hair blowing in the breeze, her face illuminated by the light of the moon with the sound of the rolling waves in the background.

"It is a night for lovers." she continued as she stared into the moonlit sky.

Harry came back to life at this point, realizing he had been staring he looked away bashfully, especially after the latest comment; he decided to ask something, something that had been nagging at him ever since Fleur had altered his appearance.

Fleur?" he asked shyly.

"Yes James." she said turning to him.

"Do you mind if I ask a personnel question?"

"Not at all James, after all I don't have to answer." she replied smiling at his bashfulness.

"Why did you errr...why did you and Bill errr."

"Brake up?" she finished "We both realised that we had feelings for other people."

"Oh," he responded, he hoped that had not been the answer "May I...may I ask who?"

She suddenly seemed to become nervous, which was very unusual for Fleur.

"A man I met around the same time, but I knew that he would not go out with me, he had feelings for someone else."

"Why wouldn't he want to go out with you, he would have to be mad, not to want to." said Harry not believing what she was saying.

"I think he just saw me as the image I try to create. A stuck up, arrogant, snooty, snobbish, spoiled, vain, shallow, superficial, self-absorbed, moody Veela. On top of that he was one of the few men I have met who seemed to be more interested in personality than looks," her voice changed slightly as she began to swoon "He was also very brave, courageous, loyal and very cute."

Harry could almost feel his hopes falling; it must have been Cedric, yet another person who he had hurt by being responsible for his death.

"Did you ever ask him if he wanted to go out with you?"

"No...I never got the chance to talk to him alone, I knew him well enough to realise that if I asked him and he said no, that he would not tell a soul, but he was always surrounded by friends and one of them was always staring at me, it was too nervous to interrupt them."

"You?" he asked sceptically "You have to be one of the bravest people I have ever met,"

She began to blush.

"How many others would face of against a dragon as well as a whole underwater village of sworn enemies?"

"I'm not brave Arry...but thank you for the compliment, I was just lucky with the dragon and the Merpeople, they...they"

Hers eyes began to fill with tears.

"Oh Fleur, I'm sorry," he apologized, pulling her into a hug, letting the tears run down onto his jacket. "I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have mentioned it, please forgive me."

"It's not your fault Arry," she cries into his shoulder "It's just that...it still scares me, what could have happened...if you hadn't been there."

After several minutes she turned her face towards him, looking deep into his eyes.

Harry's breath got caught in his throat, she was mere centimetres from his face, he could feel her breath on his neck and the beat of her heart through his chest.

In one quick movement Harry pulled her towards him, their lips met as they kissed.

It was chaste, there was no tongue, none of the wetness there had been with Cho, but it was nice, very nice.

After several seconds Harry froze and pulled back, realising what he had just done.

"Fleur I...please forgive me, I didn't know what I was doing, I was on...I didn't mean...I'm sorry."

He had been backing away all through the stuttered apology and now he turned and fled.

Fleur stood there astonished, before a slow smile spread across her features.

* * *

Harry came to a halt besides a building that stretched out onto a small peer.

Breathing hard he sunk against the wall; he stayed there for at least five minutes, not daring to move.

What had he done?

He had just kissed Fleur Delacour.

He had just KISSED FLEUR DELACOUR.

He had.

He had just kissed her.

His mind raced. What could he do?

Her parents would be furious; they would send him back to the Dursley's for sure, that's if they even let him live that long.

What was he going to do? They would likely turn him into a novelty hand bag.

Wait….what was that noise.

* * *

"Arry!...Arry!" called Fleur as she ran through the streets of the town.

She was worried, he did not know where he was, he was lost, confused and probably fearing retribution. The last thing she needed was for him to become catatonic again, especially now that she had finally got him to open up to her about his feelings.

"ARRY...ARRY."

She ran down onto the beach, hoping that he had come that way.

"Can I help you darling." came a sour voice from behind her.

She turned to see a tall male, well over six foot in height with a bald head and a dirty appearance about him, he looked decidedly unfriendly. He was leaning against one of the wooden supports that held the small peer up.

"I do not think so." she said coldly, in no mood to deal with anyone who thought they might have a chance with her.

"Oh don't be like that." said the man, standing up, spitting out the cigarette he has been smoking "I only wanted to help you."

"I know the kind if hope you want to offer and I'm not interested." said Fleur bluntly, walking under the peer to begin searching the other side.

She got most of the way through the posts when she felt a hand clamp around her wrist.

Before she could react, she was spun around and pushed against one of the posts, her hands restrained behind it.

Fear cursed through her, she was trapped, she couldn't use her wand as her hands were restrained and for the same reason she couldn't summon fire.

Terrified, she tried to struggle, but his grip was like iron.

Fleur realised for the first time in her life that she was completely helpless, she couldn't defend herself, she began to panic as a hand slid up towards her breast.

"Please," she pleaded "Let me go."

"Oh, I'll let you go my dear," his hand took a hold of her nipple through her dress and twisted it causing her to gasp in pain "As soon as I've had my fun."

He moved his head forward to kiss her as the tears began to stream down her cheeks.

"Get your hands of her now!"

Both looked towards the source of the voice.

Harry was standing just outside of the peer's shadow, fury evident on his face, the light of the moon and the angle of his head created shadows over his eyes giving him an air of darkness.

"Get your own girl squirt, I found her first." said the bully, evidently not threatened by the shorter teen.

"I did find her first, I'm living with her and I told you to let go of her." he repeated, his voice steady but forceful.

"Push off." repeated the bully, turning his attention back to Fleur.

He moved to kiss her again only to have a fist collide with his face.

The shock of the action caused him to release Fleur who ran to Harry, ducking behind him.

"You will pay for the boy." said the bully turning back to them, his nose covered in blood, his fingers clicking as he balled them into fists.

Harry pushed Fleur away from him, not wanting her to get hurt; he just prayed that one week of training would be enough.

Fleur watched terrified as the bully sent his left fist at Harry's head.

His Quidditch reflexes showed, allowing him to dodge down and away before the fist could connect; as he spun away he sent his own fist into the bully's stomach, causing him to bend forward.

The bully quickly recovered, the attack having been more surprise than pain and sent his right fist after Harry, catching the side of his face, sending him tumbling to the ground.

Fleur gasped, still at a loss for what to do.

Harry rolled over, he could taste blood in his mouth where the fist had hit his teeth and luckily they all felt intact.

As the bully closed in Harry sent his foot upwards, catching his knees at an angle causing them to buckle sideways.

He fell to his knees but grabbed Harry by the neck just as he was getting up.

Getting back to his feet he slammed him against a support, squeezing his neck, cutting off his air flow.

As his vision went black Harry saw Fleur pounding on the bully's arm, before getting thrown to the floor several meters away.

As he began to black out the bully released him, letting him slump to the ground, before turning his attention back to Fleur.

"Your turn now bitch." said the Bully as he closed in on Fleur who was back peddling as fast as she could.

Catching her ankle, the bully pulled her back towards him, causing her to shriek. He pulled her to her feet before taking a plastic cable tie from his pocket.

Grabbing hold of both of her arms he managed to force the tie around them before pulling it tight, leaving Fleur completely defenceless.

She cried out as he slammed her against another support before reaching down and grabbing the hem of her dress that had ridden up as she was pulled back across the sand.

"Don't worry bitch, it won't hurt...much."

He managed to pull up the dress as far as her upper thighs.

"NO." Harry shouted throwing out his arm, magic resonating from his voice, sending the bully sailing through the air to land at least five meters away, unconscious.

Crying uncontrollably Fleur slid down the post, too scared and relieved to even think about the fact that her hands were still bound or that her dress had been pulled up enough so that her underwear was visible.

Harry ran to her, moving his hands to her face, running them down her cheeks.

"Are you ok?" his voice was higher, filled with anxiety and worry.

She didn't answer; instead she just threw her body at him, letting him hold her, while she cried uncontrollably.

Harry while keeping one arm firmly around Fleur moved his other to the pocket of his trousers to get his wand.

Drawing it he cast a cutting charm on the cable tie, severing it allowing her arms to move.

As soon as her hands were free she wrapped them tightly around his neck, while he did the same.

"Oh Fleur...I'm so sorry...I should never have left you...please forgive me...please forgive me." his voice was almost pleading, needing forgiveness for endangering her in that way.

They stayed huddled on the ground under the peer for at least fifteen minutes before either of them managed to speak again.

When Fleur's sobs had subsided Harry gingerly pulled back and looked at her.

Her face was white, her hair had gone frizzy and messed up and the area around each eye was red and wet with tears, they were full of fear and his heart broke seeing her like this.

He cradled her face in his hands, wiping away the tears with his thumbs.

"I am so sorry." he said, his voice barely more than a whisper.

"Oh Arry," she gasped out, her voice shaky and weak "It's not your fault; I was the one who ran under the peer."

"Only because I ran away...I should leave the Chateau, I don't deserve to stay with people whose trust I have broken."

"What?" she whispered in confusion.

"You take me into your home, you bring me back from death, offer to train me and what's more follow me in the coming war and what do I do...I betray your trust and that of your parents by abusing our friendship and kissing you...I should be thrown out on the street with the rest of the garbage."

"Arry," she gasped at the last line, bringing her own hands to cup his face "You are not garbage...and you did not abuse my trust, or our friendship."

"But I..."

He was cut of as he was kissed forcefully.

After a few seconds she pulled back and looked at him, observing his reaction.

Shock, fear, relief, pleasure and confusion all flicked across his face before he reached out and pulled her in for another kiss.

This time is was more passionate as they both clung to each other, neither wanting the moment to end.

After several seconds they pulled back for air, both looking flustered and excited at the same time.

Fleur reached into Harry's jacket and pulled out the portkey and pressed hers and Harry's hands to it.


	24. CH24 Take Six Silent Seduction

Chapter 24 – Take Six: Silent Seduction

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:31st July 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:Evening_

In the Sitting Room of Chateau Delacour the Comte and Comtesse are sitting leisurely in the pair of arm chairs, reading the Wizarding Financial Times and a Political Review Magazine, when a bell sounded, signifying that a portkey was incoming.

Being cautious, they both drew their wands, just in case.

Fleur and Harry appeared on the floor in front of them, kissing deeply not even noticing the Delacour elders beside them.

"I take it you two had a good evening then." said Delphine with a smile, before seeing Fleur's tear stained face as they ended the kiss "Fleur, what happened?"

Delphine and Dimitri immediately dropped down beside their daughter, pulling her out of Harry's grip.

"A man, he...he..." she tried as the tears started up again.

"He attempted to rape her." said Harry quietly.

Delphine's eyes were immediately full of fear as she pulled her daughter into a bone crushing hug, while her husband saw red and looked directly at Harry.

"Why did you not stop him." he demanded.

"He did father," said Fleur quietly "We got separated for a couple of minutes which was when the man tried to..." She gulped "Harry showed up in time to stop him, he broke his nose but was knocked out, he woke up just in time to knock him out with wandless magic."

Dimitri's eyes calmed slightly, which Harry was very thankful for, even if he couldn't conjure fireballs like his wife or daughters he could still look very dangerous at times.

"Fleur?" asked her mother "Why did you not use your Veela power or summon fire to get read of him?"

"He bound my hands," said Fleur showing her mother the red marks made by the cable tie and the bully's hands.

Delphine gasped at the sight of the marks, taking her daughter's hands in her own before picking up her wand and healing them, leaving only a slight red line around her wrists.

"I was..." continued Fleur "I was too scared to thing of my powers." she sobbed.

Delphine pulled her daughter back into the hug.

"Did you leave him unconscious?" asked Dimitri to Harry who nodded.

Dimitri picked up the portkey and vanished, leaving Harry kneeling on the floor in front of the hugging Veela.

He let his head drop as he slowly got to his feet and began walking out of the room.

"Where are you going?"

He turned slowly to see both women looking at him.

"To pack, I endangered Fleur's life so I should leave immediately; I'll head back to the Dursley's or live on the streets with the rest of the trash it doesn't matter any more."

Fleur launched herself to her feet before moving to Harry and slapping him across the face with a loud crack, causing both Harry and Delphine to gasp in shock...and pain in Harry's case.

"Stop it Arry!" she ordered pointing a finger threateningly; oncoming tears making her eyes shine "You are NOT garbage! You are NOT trash and it was NOT your fault."

Her eyes softened.

"You saved me Arry...without even using your wand." She pulled him into a fierce hug, refusing to let him go when he attempted to pull away.

After several seconds she drew back as Delphine threw herself around Harry.

"Thank you for saving my daughter Harry." Harry could feel his clothes going damp as Delphine's tears ran off her face "You are not leaving us, so don't even try, because we will come and find you if you do."

The portkey bell went of a couple of minute later and Dimitri returned.

"I have had the Muggle police arrest him, apparently that was not the first attack he had carried out, they had been trying to catch him for months and were only too pleased to take him of my hands...thank you for what you did Harry." he said gratefully.

"Fleur, why don't you and Harry go to bed I'm sure you must be tired after your ordeal." suggested Delphine, seeing that Fleur was barely able to stand.

The pair nodded gratefully and begun walking to their room.

Halfway there Fleur's ankles gave out and she began to fall, Harry using his Seeker reflexes managed to catch her under her arm as she began to fall.

"Sorry Arry, I guess tonight took a bit more out of me than I though."

She tried to keep walking with Harry's help but found that she was unable.

Harry in one swift motion put one arm under her knees and swung her up into his arms, causing her to yelp in surprise.

Harry carried her towards their room, surprised at how light she was, he was expecting to be struggling, especially as she was taller than him, but she was as light as a feather.

As he entered the room he gently laid her down on the bed before heading towards the bathroom.

"Arry."

He turned back to Fleur, she was still lying were he had placed her.

"Can you help me undress." she asked weakly "I don't think I have the energy/"

Harry gulped several times while suppressing the mental pictures his mind was creating of Fleur without clothes.

"Fleur...I can't...especially after what I did earlier, I shouldn't have kissed you, I should be thrown out of this house for even thinking of you wearing any less than you are now." 

"Arry, please."

Seeing the pleading look on her face he inwardly groaned, why did life keep throwing him into intimate situations with the beautiful Veela.

He awkwardly moved over to the bed as she slowly managed to sit up.

He cautiously slid the straps off of her shoulders.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked, praying for the answer no.

"Yes." she answered confidently looking him in the eye.

Taking a deep breath he closed his eyes and began to slide the straps off of her arms.

As soon as her hands were free the front of the dress fell away.

Harry was thankful that he had his eyes shut because he was sure that if he could see, he would not be able to maintain any level of self control.

Harry felt her lay down on the bed and slowly lift her hips, he cautiously pulled the silk over her hips and down her legs, doing his best not to touch her skin though desperately wanting to.

As he folded the material up as best he could with his eyes closed he asked:

"Where is your nightdress?"

"I am not completely undressed yet Arry." she replied, almost weaker than before.

Harry's breath caught in his throat.

"Yes you are." he said trying to close the matter before she suggested what she was about to.

"I am still in my underwear Arry." She replied barely more than a whisper.

"Fleur...I can not...it's not right."

"Please Arry." she asked, her voice sounded so weak he didn't dare say no.

Harry wasn't sure if he should be panicking or thanking the gods. He knew she was not wearing a bra as her dress type prevented her from doing so, which meant that she was only wearing a pair of knickers.

Harry having taken his hands off her was not entirely sure where she was.

He extended his hands cautiously until he brushed fabric, he drew back rapidly as she gasped...oh god he hadn't just touched her there had he.

"I'm sorry, please forgive me, hit me if you want." he begged, he really did not want to be thrown out of the house over this, though he was sure he was going to.

He felt a hand clasp around his wrist and he gulped, was she going to break his wrist.

The hand pulled him weakly until he felt the fabric again, he gently reached out with his other hand, sliding both under the sides of what he was sure felt like a thong.

"Are you sure?" he asked again, praying that she would change her mind.

"Yes." she answered quietly.

Taking several deep breaths he began very slowly removing the garment.

As the thong slid over her feet his mind began to race, she was naked on a bed right next to him.

"Where is your night..." he was cut of mid sentence by a pair of strong hands gripping the front of his jacket and pulling onto the bed.

He felt Fleur roll on top of him and begin to kiss him powerfully.

She had tricked him, she wasn't weak at all.

He was terrified; his eyelids were so tightly shut that he would be surprised if a crowbar could get them open.

"Open your eyes Arry." said Fleur as her arms pulled his and pinned them above his head.

He did nothing.

"Open your eyes." she repeated.

He shook his head, squeezing them even tighter.

He felt his resistance begin to fail as she let loose her powers upon him.

"Open your eyes."

He felt his control slipping as she repeated the order.

His eyes crept open to look at the naked Veela above him.

Her hair was falling like a curtain around her face, framing it in silver; she was mere centimetres away from his face.

"Look down." she commanded as she raised her upper body to give him a better view.

Part of Harry was positively screaming at himself not to look down, but her powers had pushed that part of him to the back of his mind.

His head rose as he looked down the length of her body, his eyes fell upon the curve of her bosom, watching it rise and fall excitably.

He used all his will to prevent himself from looking lower, but it was no good.

His eyes lingered on the prize between her legs hidden among the perfect triangle of silver hair.

She rose up slightly to take a hold of her wand which had fallen out of its hiding place in the upper half of her dress when it was removed.

She quickly cast a spell at his wrists that allowed her to move her other arm, while he remained with his arms pinned together at the head of the bed, leaving him completely at her mercy.

He felt her Veela powers cease and his mind return to his control.

"I have seen the way you look at me Harry," she said sitting up, forcing Harry to look at her face over her breasts "I know you like me...and I assure you that the feeling is mutual."

His eyes widened several times before he attempted to slam them closed again.

"Oh no you don't."

She quickly aimed a charm at his eyes and his eyelids remained stuck open.

"You are not running from this Harry, you have shown me your feelings, but you have also shown that you are afraid of them, you kissed me at your party and on the wall by the sea...I saw the panic in your eyes."

Harry mentally scolded himself for kissing her as he tried to find somewhere he could look safely, finally settling on her face, which was probably not the best place to look.

"Did you not notice the way that I kissed you back on the beach….or the way that I assumed the role of girlfriend not just your hostess...I have been trying to tell you Arry...I have been trying to let you know but you kept retreating every time we got too close, you did not even come near me after you kissed me at your party, you ran when you kissed me by the beach and you started running to pack when we kissed here….don't you understand Arry, don't you see….don't you see the way I feel about you Arry...I love you."

Harry almost felt his heartbreak, how could the world be so cruel, he did not deserve to be with someone like Fleur, he couldn't be, she would only end up getting hurt.

"Say something Arry...please." she begged, she looked like she could break if he answered wrong.

Unnoticed, Harry's soul ring started to glow yellow, the colour of fear.

"Please stop." he begged.

"What?" she asked confused.

"Please stop, torturing me...I don't deserve to be with someone like you, your perfect, a lady, some day you will be a Comtesse, your flawless and beautiful and caring...while I am just some ordinary wizard who everyone thinks is a hero, I am nothing but a waste of space who gets people killed...I know you helped me get past all the deaths but I still feel partially responsible, no matter what anyone says I am at least partially responsible for the deaths of Cedric, Sirius and my parents. Let me go Fleur...I can't be with you...I'll only hurt you….And if you die because of me….it will kill me"

The ring turned brown as Fleur's eye filled with pain, he was trying to push her away, he couldn't do this to her, not after all she had been through since she last saw him.

He was the reason she had broken up with Bill, he was the reason that she was going through the training, he was her reason for living...he couldn't push her away.

There was only one way she could show him how she felt, no matter how many rules she was about to break.

She leaned forward and captured him in a powerful kiss.

Harry tried to resist, but with every second that passed his resolve was weakened.

She took a hold of his face to stop him struggling.

He could almost feel her pouring her love into the kiss, doing her best to destroy his defences.

It took less than a minute for Harry to give in and to start kissing her back, their mouths opened, deepening the kiss.

Harry felt her reach for her wand before feeling his bare flesh touch hers as his clothes were removed. He wanted to protest but he simply didn't have sufficient will to do so.

He felt her hand reach down between them.

He gasped at the foreign sensation, enjoying the feeling of pleasure it instilled.

Pulling back to look at him she lifted herself up before sliding down onto him, causing both to gasp.

They both remained still as they accustomed themselves to the feeling before Fleur slowly began to move.

Harry did not think he had ever seen a more beautiful site, Fleur in her dress had been the sexiest but the sight of her naked body writhing atop his was stunning.

After several minutes of panting and moaning Harry managed to gasp out.

"My hands."

Fleur, not stopping her movements, cancelled the charm allowing him to move his arms.

His hands flew to her body, pulling her close for a kiss as they both climaxed.

As they reached their respective peaks a flash of white light was given out from every place that their skin met, while Harry's ring turned a dazzling shade of gold.

Fleur collapsed on top of Harry her head falling beside his.

"I must be the luckiest woman alive Harry...to have a mate like you."

With that they both fell into a pleasant sleep, holding each other close.


	25. CH25 Our Hearts Are One

Chapter 25 – Our Hearts Are One 

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:1st August 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:Morning_

Harry was the first to awake the next morning, the memories of the previous night quickly returning to him.

Looking down he could see Fleur, curled up exactly where they had fallen asleep the night before.

Harry's mind began to race….HE had made LOVE to Fleur Delacour, but more importantly Fleur Delacour, the Beauxbatons Tri Wizard Champion, the Legendary Veela Beauty has said that she….LOVED….him.

Harry began to panic as his mind turned to Fleur's parents.

They would murder him, let alone throw him out.

He had just slept with their daughter.

He had to leave….NOW.

Very carefully he rolled her off him and tucked her under the sheets.

"I'm sorry." he whispered, before kissing her on the forehead.

Using his wand he quickly retrieved his trunk from the cupboard and packed the few things that had been extracted from it before shrinking the entire thing down to fit in his pocket, he mentally thanked Fleur for teaching him that.

He changed into jeans and a t-shirt, wrote Fleur a note of apology, before quietly slipping out of the room.

He passed along the corridors quietly, passing several doors, being as silent as he possibly could, after a few minutes he realised he was lost, Fleur had always led him to the rooms he could never remember where they were each day.

"Morning Harry." greeted a small voice in English behind him.

Turning he saw a bleary eyed Gabrielle stepping out of a room, dressed in her school uniform, minus the hat and the blazer.

"Hello Gabrielle." he said smiling.

Harry mentally swore, he was trapped now, the small amount of time he had spent with Gabrielle had told him that once she had seen him:

'A' He would not be able to get away from her without the assistance of either Dimitri, Delphine or Fleur

And 'B' That that adorable smile of hers could convince anyone to do anything.

"What are you doing?" she asked walking up to him.

What could he say, he couldn't tell her that he had just slept with her sister and now he was leaving.

"I was….I was looking for the bathroom….I got lost."

"There is a bathroom in your room silly." She said smiling up at him sweetly.

"Oh yeah."

She giggled at him causing him to inwardly groan, there was no way he was leaving now, no way on Earth, she was just too adorable to say no to, as her next question would just prove.

"Let me show you my room Harry." She said smiling, her eyes beaming up at him.

"Ok." Harry cursed himself as his mouth answered automatically.

She smiled and did a quick celebratory jump before taking his hand and leading him into the room she had just vacated.

The room was slightly larger than the ones he had been staying in during the time jumps; around the same size as the room they put him in on his first night.

The entire room was painted in shades of light blue, the carpet, the walls, even the ceiling,

There was the usual four poster bed in one corner; there was also a couch, an arm chair, a large bay window with a window seat along it, a couple of chests and one of those weird bed/chair things that had an arm at one end but were open at the other, allowing you to lie down or sit on it., loveseats he thought they were called.

On a couple of the walls were wizard posters including one, he noticed containing an image of him lifting the Hogwarts Quidditch Cup. The other posters ranged from things like Witch/Wizard music groups to other famous young wizards and witches, including Viktor and one which had a picture of all four of the Triwizard Champions on it.

"Nice room."

"Thanks Harry." She beamed as she pulled him to the sofa, sitting him down beside her.

"Do you want to see me make fire?" she asked eagerly.

"Ok." Harry answered cautiously; he had not yet seen how Veela's made fire and he was curious to see how it worked.

He watched fascinated as she held one of her palms flat; screwed her face up for a second before a small ball of fire flashed into existence above her hand.

"Wow."

She grinned at him sweetly breathing out; it obviously wasn't that easy to do.

"It's harder because I am only ten, I have tried to make the ball bigger but the last rime I tried I set the bed on fire. Fleur and mum can do it easily and even make the fire grow in their hands rather than just appearing….look what else I can do with it."

She raised her hand and threw the ball at the door.

"Gabrielle its time for Ahh."

Delphine ducked just in time as the fire flew through the doorway and impacted on the wall outside.

"Gabrielle! What have I told you about. Oh….Good morning Harry."

"Morning Delphine, the fireball wasn't Gabrielle's fault, she was just demonstrating to me."

He could see the worried look on Gabrielle's face.

"I see," said Delphine smiling "In that case I'll let you off….THIS time."

Gabrielle visually gulped.

"As I was saying, it is time for breakfast."

Gabrielle pecked Harry on the cheek and muttered a thank you before taking his hand and leading him out of the room, Delphine following behind.

They arrived in the Dinning Room, to see Viktor and Dimitri already eating.

"Good morning." greeted Dimitri in French, while Viktor decided to test Harry's memory.

"Добър Сутрин. Спя извор?." Asked Viktor.

"Много извор благодаря ти Viktor." Harry replied.

"Can you translate that for us?" asked Dimitri looking at the pair expectantly.

Viktor and Harry smiled before Viktor began answering.

"I said 'Good morning' to Harry in Bulgarian, before asking him if he slept well."

"And I responded by saying 'Yes, thank you Viktor.'"

The others nodded their understanding except Gabrielle.

"You spoke Bulgarian?" she gasped.

"I speak German and French too." Harry replied in her native language.

She did a very good impression of a fish before Harry led the stunned girl to the table and they began eating.

They sat talking quietly and eating for several minutes before Gabrielle left reluctantly to return to school while the others continued chatting.

Several minutes later Harry remembered that he had left Fleur with nothing but a note, thinking that if he moved quickly he could remove it and pretend like nothing had happened, he moved to get up from the table and had got as far as the back of the door when Fleur ran into the room, dressed only in a dressing gown, looking distraught, completely missing him as she passed, the door hiding him from sight.

"Mother, father, he's gone, Arry's gone!" she shouted panicked "We have to find him! He's going to go back! I know he is! If we don't find him quickly he will…."

"Fleur!" shouted Dimitri, stopping the French beauty mid sentence "Start again please, but slowly this time."

"Last night I told Arry how I felt about him and how I knew that he felt the same for me, but when I woke up this morning he was gone, he left me a note saying that he didn't deserve to be with someone like me and that being with me would put our lives at risk, he said that he was going because he couldn't bare to see anyone else hurt. We have to find him!"

"Fleur," said Delphine quietly "Please look behind you."

Fleur turned, her face confused until she saw Harry behind the door, her face immediately turned to relief and she threw herself at him, holding him so tight he sure his neck would snap.

"Why?" she asked, her voice less steady than usual "Why didn't you leave?"

"Gabrielle caught me." he replied her head still buried in his shoulder, "You know it is impossible to get away from her once she has seen you." she laughed slightly causing Harry to smile. He stroked her hair soothingly and tried his hardest not to smell the wonderful lavender scent upon it.

She finally separated from him, moving back enough so that they could look into each others eyes.

He could see a pair of tears stains running down her cheeks which he wiped away with his thumbs as be brought his hands to her face.

"I am sorry; I just can't bare the thought of seeing you getting hurt….That is why we can't be together."

"Arry," she began unsteadily, more tears threatening "I am afraid that after last night….we always will be."

"What?" asked Dimitri, the calm and relaxed demeanour he had been exhibiting during the whole event rapidly changed at her words, Delphine too had leant forward at her daughters phrasing.

Fleur turned to her parents.

"Last night…." she tried hesitantly, knowing that her parents would not want to hear what she was about to say "Last night I…..mated with Arry."

"WHAT." roared Dimitri "Fleur how could you, with out even asking his consent; he doesn't even know what mating is!"

"Yes I do." replied Harry calmly, stopping Dimitri from continuing to shout at his daughter, Harry's face was as flat as a plank, as if he had actually been hit by the new revelation about last nights activities.

The words of the book he had read drifted back to him.

_Veela are occasionally known to 'mate' with their partners. Despite what this sounds like it is actually a very deep magical bond that binds the souls of the pair to each other for all time. It is a great honour to be chosen as a Veela's mate as less than one in ten of coupled Veela's mate. _

_Mating prevents either partner from ever even wanting to cheat with another being._

_While it considered something that never happens for an unmated Veela to cheat, for a mated Veela or Veela's partner to cheat is considered impossible. _

He turned to Fleur, his face still unreadable.

"Why?"

"Because no matter what I told you, you still refused to accept that we can be together and that I do want to be with you and that I want to make you happy," she answered quietly, her eyes dropped to the floor "It was the only way."

Harry saw a tear trickle its way down her cheek, he felt a pang of guilt for causing her to cry, why did he always have to hurt people, why couldn't he just be normal.

He sighed and wiped the tear away.

"Tell me about the mating."

She looked into his eyes and smiled sweetly, relief evident on her face that he was not mad at her.

They moved into the Sitting Room, Viktor offered to leave but they said that they did not mind him hearing what was to be said. They sat down in the same places as last time, the Delacour elders in the armchairs, Viktor on one sofa and Fleur sitting next to Harry on the other, the only difference being that she was sitting facing towards him, her hand in his looking like a child who was about to explain why she had been naughty.

"Please explain what exactly you did to me?" Harry asked.

Fleur inwardly winced at his phrasing before taking a deep breath.

"Mating is a very unique process Arry, it occurs when two people, one of whom is a Veela or part Veela bond their soul to the other. The process occurs during intercourse, the Veela, to put it simply, opens her mind and heart during the shared climactic event allowing her powers to permanently bind her to the being she is mating with."

Dimitri seeing how awkward his daughter looked took over.

"The bond allows the flow of magic, thought and feeling, it will allow you to communicate although you are far apart, it also will allow you to feel what your mate is feeling as well as allowing you to access each others magic."

Delphine continued.

"The bond can be a great source of strength, boosting your magic greatly, but it can also be a weakness, if one of you falls ill the other will also be affected, but more importantly, your life forces have also been bound together, if either of you die, the other will follow shortly after, which is the reason Dimitri and I never mated, we couldn't bare the thought of our daughters loosing both parents at once, if anything were to happen."

Dimitri leaned forward and took his wife's hand in his own.

"It is considered a great honour to have a Veela choose you for her mate as it shows absolute trust, as you now hold part of her soul, as she does yours, this means that you can hurt your partner without even thinking it, they feel your pain, your pleasure and it effects them."

"The bond also enhances your feelings for each other, as well as preventing you from having similar feelings for others." finished Dimitri.

"So," Harry said turning to Fleur "If I didn't love you and I had feelings for someone else, I would have no choice now."

Fleur looked torn, for a moment she wondered if he was deliberately trying to make her feel bad, but she rapidly quashed this thought, he would never do that, he was to honourable.

"Yes," she said guiltily, trying hard not to cry "But if you could leave me, then it would either drive both of us mad or kill us."

Now Harry felt guilty again, he hadn't meant that to sound as it did, he did feel for her, he really did, they had really connected while he had been staying with her, she had become like another part of him, and she knew more about him than anyone else, even Ron and Hermione. He just didn't like the idea that he didn't have a choice in the matter, even if he hadn't wanted to be with her, which he did, though he wouldn't if there was even the slightest chance she, or her family could get hurt, he now had no choice in the matter. Leaving her would kill her or drive her and himself mad, therefore condemning the Wizarding world to Voldemort's rule.

An image flickered in his mind; he sat crouched in the corner of a padded cell muttering under his breath, the door opens to reveal Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

They walked towards him as Voldemort raises his wand.

"Good bye...Harry….Potter."

A flash of green light before he returns to the real world.

Fleur still has her head bowed in sorrow.

"Fleur," he said kindly, she slowly raised her head "I do love you….as much as I understand what love is, I just wanted to know why...I'm sorry...I didn't mean to make you feel bad...I just don't understand why you would chose me of all people...you could have any man in the world...and you chose me...pathetic, useless….a killer….a murderer."

"Oh Arry," she cried, her eyes filling up again "You are not a killer….I thought we had proved that to you, those deaths were not your fault, you are not pathetic or useless, you have done to much to be called either."

"Fleur," he began "I…."

She cut him of by kissing him forcefully. Harry's initial surprise soon past as he gave into the kiss, both pouring all they could into it.

For the first time since they had matted Harry understood what the Delacour's had said.

He could feel Fleur, her emotions, her feelings, he could see her thoughts, her memories, he could actually feel the ring on his finger glowing gold.

But most of all he felt her love for him.

He did not believe it possible for her to love him as much as he loved her, he felt like a twig that had been washed out to sea by the tide, he felt powerless against her, so great was her love for him.

* * *

Fleur was in heaven, she could feel the emotions radiating from him, his love, it felt stronger than the earth they stood upon, any doubts she had had were now washed away.

After several minutes they parted slowly, resting their foreheads against each other, enjoying the feelings the contact was creating.

"Three minutes forty two seconds." stated Delphine "Viktor, Dimitri, you both owe me ten galleons."

Fleur and Harry turned to look at the three.

"After the first thirty seconds I bet Dimitri that you would keep kissing for at least a minute and a half," explained Viktor "Dimitri bet two minutes and Delphine bet over three and a half."

The pair laughed at the trio.

Harry turned to Viktor.

"Can we forgo the exercise and just do the Occlumency training today."

Viktor grinned at him.

"I think we can manage that."

"Thanks," he smiled turning to Fleur "Because I think I need to get to know me mate a little better."


	26. CH26 Lessons Commence

Chapter 26 – Lessons Commence

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:2nd August 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:Morning_

Harry was in his room; he had been there for the last twenty minutes and kept alternating between pacing, brushing his hair and fiddling with his new expensive wardrobe that Fleur had insisted on buying him.

They had taken an extra day repeat to allow Fleur to take Harry to a French Designers, which sold both Muggle and Wizarding attire; he now had at least five sets of smart robes for out of school use, five sets of robes and uniform for school(to use both as a Professor and as a student), a tux, a white tie suit, a black tie suit, two normal suits, one black and one dark grey, new Gryffindor Quidditch gear, a set of plain red and gold Quidditch gear, another set of plain black Quidditch gear, four smart pairs of trousers, five smart shirts, three sets of casual robes, two warm jumpers, two jackets, one leather, one moleskin, one long coat, two dressing gowns, one thick, one thin, four sets of pyjamas, five t-shirts, four pairs of jeans, two black, one blue, one grey, two pairs of swimming shorts, several smart shirts and ties, about half a dozen types of footwear and plenty of new underwear, all equipped with temperature and comfort charms.

Harry had nearly had a heart attack when he saw all the stuff Fleur had got, especially as it was all custom made out of the best possible fabrics, it had taken the Delacour's half an hour of talk, a very cute Gabrielle and a lot of persuasive kissing from Fleur to talk him out of paying them back.

So there he was, dressed in his new robes with his new shirt, tie and trousers, fidgeting with his new collar and pacing with worry about his first day of teaching.

There was a knock at the door before Fleur walked in.

"Are you ready?" she asked.

"Definitely no." he replied without breaking stride.

She sighed and moved in front of him.

Just to annoy her, when he reached her be picked her up and placed her in a firemen's hold, causing her to shriek.

"Put me down you big oaf." she laughed.

"You were interrupting my pacing." he informed her, spinning around at one end a bit faster than he normally did just to make her squeak.

Since the mating a week ago (or rather a week ago to them, in reality it had only been just over twenty four hours), they had become a much more relaxed couple, Harry had as good as forgiven Fleur for matting with him the way she did and Fleur herself was a lot more relaxed around him allowing him to see even more of the woman which she hid from the world.

They had got to know each other better, they knew each others likes and dislikes, they could read each others thoughts and feel each others feelings, which occasionally got Harry into trouble when they drifted towards the French beauty, causing him to be punished by a thorough French kissing….a punishment that didn't seem to work as he kept re-offending.

Harry felt her Veela powers begin to exert their influence on him as he approached his next turn and he quickly put her down, as much as he'd like to, the last thing he needed now was a bit of fun with Fleur teasing him, her Veela powers were still an unfair advantage that she had over him, though she never abused her power, in fact so far she had only used it a couple of times when he was working out or studying too hard in order to get him to relax and let his mind wander to….other things.

"Calm down Arry," she reassured "You'll do fine, you've got flying to start with, just do what you did on your first lesson."

"Good advice but Draco Malfoy and Neville Longbottom don't attend Beauxbatons; I don't own a Remembrall and the Academy doesn't even have a Quidditch team for all the Seekers to join."

Fleur giggled before straightening his robes, Harry had to resist the urge to kiss her, she looked almost as cute as her sister when she laughed.

"You'll be fine." she reassured him as she began to tweak his appearance so that he had looked like he had for their dinner, long brown hair in a ponytail, no scar and a slightly longer face, she also added a bit more detail and changed his eye colour to a blueish grey, just encase someone recognised them "Remember, that these charms won't hide your scar for long, so make sure you recast it at least once."

"I'm terrified." he said beginning to fiddle with robes again before Fleur batted his hands away.

"Don't worry, they don't bite...much."

He grinned nervously before taking her arm and walking down to the sitting room where Dimitri and Delphine were waiting for him.

"Harry, we realise that this is a bit late but we thought you might have need of it today."

They moved aside to reveal a large rectangular package.

Looking at them cautiously he moved to open the package, carefully pealing of the paper a box was revealed.

Opening the box revealed a mass of padding.

He turned back to them confused.

Dimitri laughed and said.

"Up."

Immediately a broom sprung up from the box.

Harry stared open mouthed at the sight before him.

Hovering in front of him was the brand new, not even released yet 'Dragon' broom.

Six foot of the fastest racing broom on the planet, this broom was first class, it was the Rolls Royce of brooms, his Nimbus and Firebolt were and in fact still are excellent brooms but they had nothing on this.

Harry turned to them and did a very good impression of a gold fish as he attempted to find some way….anyway, to thank them.

"Your welcome Harry." chuckled Delphine as she placed the broom in his hand.

"Knock them dead." joked Dimitri as he opened the link and pushed him into the fire.

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:2nd August 2001 AD_

_Country:France – Pic Du Thaume_

_Location:Beauxbatons Academy Of Magic_

_Time:Morning_

He tumbled out of the fireplace at the other end landing on his back, his hands clasped protectively around his new broom.

"What do fireplaces have against me." he groaned.

"Velcome to Beauxbatons Academy of Magic Mr. Potter." greeted Madam Maxine trying to hold back her laughter.

"Thank you." he said heaving himself up off the floor.

Looking around he saw that he was standing in an office, it was bigger then Dumbledore's and could almost be described more effectively as a study. It was decorated brightly in light colours set on a background of whitish/grey stone, at one end of the room was a large wooden desk with several chairs gathered around in front of it and a large armchair behind it.

A large bay window could he seen behind the desk, it appeared to look out over the Academy's grounds. The room resembled a stately home, with detailed crafted white stained wood on the walls and doors with additional matching decoration engraved in the wooden furniture.

There were several Wizarding paintings on the walls and crystal and (what appeared to be) ice statues in alcoves set in the wall, all portraying historic moments in French Wizarding history or showing dramatic scenes and landscapes.

In the corner of the room there was a staircase that (presumably) led up to Madam Maxime's living quarters.

"Nice office." he commented.

Thank you, it iz yours." she grinned.

"Mine!" he exclaimed, nearly dropping his brand new broom in surprise.

"Yez, you are a Professor ere and vat means that you need an office."

Harry decided not to try to argue, and not just because she made him look like a midget, it might be nice to have a few perks to the job.

"Come and ave a look at the view." she said smiling, heading towards the staircase.

He followed her up the stairs and through a suite of rooms that he guessed were also his.

They reached another set of stairs, the top of which opened out onto a flat stone surface at least five meters across, surrounded on all sides by a glass dome.

Looking around he had to shield his eyes from the dazzling morning sun, he realised that they were at the top of a stone tower that must have been at the very least one hundred and fifty meters high.

It over looked the school and its grounds, looking down he could see that the tower was a separate building situated in a courtyard.

The bottom of the whitish/grey tower sloped outwards until the bottom of the tower matched the gradient of the ground so that it appeared that the tower was merely an extension of the ground.

Around the tower was a circular building at least six stories high and about thirty meters deep, with one section being slightly higher and thicker, presumably the main entrance.

Beyond that there was a very gently slopping lawn that seemed to stretch on to the horizon, there were also a series of rivers and lakes, interspaced with lines or small groups of trees, shrubbery, plants and gardens. The grounds had obviously been designed and crafted, this was blatantly obvious when he looked down the perfectly straight driveway, it looked like an approach to a stately home, on either side of the road at a distance of about ten meters there were lines of trees and a pair of streams, making for an impressive view of the Academy at the end of said lines.

"Wow," he exclaimed before his brain realised something "Shouldn't this be your room Headmistress?" he asked curiously.

"Strangely no," she replied "For zome reazon the founder dezided to place my Office immediately under thiz one, I ave never figured out vhy."

"So why are you giving this office to me?"

"I thought it might elp perzuade you." she said with a sly smile.

"Its worked." he replied, returning the smile.

"Come on Mr. Potter, I ave yet to show you the rezt of the Academy."

"Please call me Harry." he asked as he followed her down the stairs.

"Only if you call me Olympe, you are a member of staff now."

She showed him down through the tower. Beauxbatons, like Hogwarts, was magically enlarged inside, this was proved by the fact that the tower, which was at the very top only five meters in diameter, just one floors down managed to accommodate enough space for his entire suite of rooms and a couple of floors lower down there was enough room for staff chambers and offices on both side of the stairway.

On the way down Harry observed the beautiful whitish/grey walls and the ice and crystalline statues set into recesses every few meters, the corridors themselves were almost circular except for the floor where it was levelled out leaving around three meters of floor flat space, making the corridors slightly thinner than their Hogwarts counterparts and a lot shorter as Hogwarts ceilings are easily high enough to allow a troll to stand upright.

"Beauxbatons is roughly the same zize as Hogwartz, at around vree hundred studentz, with forty per year. Unlike Hogwartz ve do not have housez, but ve do ave a merit and demerit system. From vhat I zaw vhile at Hogwartz, one merit is equal to vive of your house pointz, if you have any problems or questionz during your stay feel free to ask myzelf, one of the other Profezzors or the Ead or Deputy Ead Girl for elp."

By this time they had reached the base of the flight of stairs, they must have past down at through at least thirty floors, probably more as Harry had lost count, they were currently standing in a wide hallway, at least three times larger than the ones higher up in the tower, Harry had noticed how they had got bigger the lower they got, probably to accommodate the additional students that would pass through them towards the classrooms. At one end of the hall they were currently standing in was a large set of double doors leading outside, another set was visible inside the ring building and another on its far side giving a straight path between the grounds and the Main Hall that lies at the other end of the hall they were currently in.

From what he could see, the Great Hall was around the same size as that of Hogwarts except it was circular and the tables were also arranged in a circle with a gap in the ring nearest the entrance, and a slightly larger set of chairs at a larger table opposite the gap.

"I think I'm going to like it here." said Harry with a smile.

"Is this him?" came a voice in French.

Looking around Harry saw a French woman who looked to about fifty walking down the stairs; she was of average height, with grey hair and dressed in clothes that would be suitable for people of an older generation.

"This is the new flying fool."

"Agnes!" chastised Maxine, still in French, obviously thinking that Harry was not that fluent yet and had therefore hopefully not understood the rest of what had been said "Vis iz Profezzor Daniel Radcliffe," she continued in English "Our new DAA and….FLYING….Instructor."

Harry noted the strong emphasis on his second teaching post.

"Profezzor Daniel Radcliffe, Profezzor Agnes Plaindre.'

"He is a boy Olympe." complained Agnes in French; ignoring the hand that Harry extended to her "He can't even speak French."

"He is not a boy, he is a man, he is a very good flier and he could best you in a duel on his weakest day."

Agnes looked slightly shocked as the usually very placid Headmistress vigorously defended the boy.

"Olympe, he does not even look eighteen," continued the Professor, still completely unaware that he could understand her "He probably just came here to try to seduce the girls."

"For your information Professor Plaindre, I already have a very nice French girlfriend who I would not leave for the world, who just happens to be an alumna of this Academy," replied Harry in perfect Parisian, resisting the urge to laugh at the expressions on both the women's faces "Oh, and by the way...I do speak French, I would also be able to understand you if you spoke German or Bulgarian if you would care to test me."

Professor Plaindre looked at him in angrily before turning tail and walking out into the courtyard.

"I did not realise that you were so fluent at Parisian, if had I had known I wouldn't have spoken in English."

"Viktor is a very good teacher." Harry replied.

"You must be a very good student to have learned three languages in such a short time."

"Four actually, other than Parisian, and basic Bulgarian and German he also taught me common French, it is sometimes useful to blend in."

She smiled at him approvingly, obviously impressed by his affinity with languages.

"I apologise for Agnes Arry, she is very traditional and is under the delusion that anyone who does not process at least five NEWT's or higher in qualifications should not even be allowed to be considered for a teaching position."

"I did not know that there were any qualifications higher than NEWT's."

"Oh yes, there are the HAWK's, Highly Advanced Wizard Credits and then above that, EAGLE's, Extremely Advanced Graduation Level Exams, they are studied either at one of the worlds Wizarding Ministries or at one of the Wizarding schools, you do what I believe the Muggles would call a Degree. At the Ministries you complete an entirely study based course whereas at the schools you do a practical course which I personally believe is more useful, but no one has attempted to take one at any of the three great European schools in many many years."

"Isn't hawk spelt with a K, not a C." asked confused.

"The original designers of the courses had a love for animal, birds in particular; they just couldn't think what else to call them."

An idea grew in Harry's mind.

"How does one go about taking a HAWK or an EAGLE?"

She turned to him smiling, realising what he was about to suggest.

"You take employment at one of the stations I have already stated, shall we say a school for the moment and, just to be specific shall we say Beauxbatons. Now unlike NEWT's and OWL's that check to see what you have learnt, the HAWK's test to see if you can assist in teaching at OWL or NEWT level, while the EAGLE's test to see if you can teach independently at OWL or NEWT level...I will send a confidential message to the Examining Body, explaining the situation and that you will be taking the course while in disguise, would you prefer to take the EAGLE in DAA, Flight Instruction or both?"

Harry thought for a moment, thinking that an EAGLE in DAA would be more impressive but taking both may turn out to be a better career move.

"Both I think."

"Excellent, I will also add that because you will be teaching both OWL and NEWT level subjects, if you are discovered to be a competent teacher, which of course you will, you will end up receiving two double EAGLE's as you will be teaching both levels in both subjects."

By this time a few students seemed to have woken up and had wandered into the tower, most looking at him curiously as they passed.

Harry compared their uniform to that which they had worn to Hogwarts.

"Why are these students wearing blazers, while they were wearing those tight fitting blue dresses and robes when at Hogwarts." he asked.

"The dresses and robes are for special occasions, they are our form of dress robes, the blazers and skirts are the usual attire."

The uniform the girls around him were wearing consisted of a blouse, a pleated skirt for the younger student's, a tight fitting skirt (like those worn at the tournament) for the older students with a pair of shoes and a blazer to finish it off, all the garments were pale blue.

A soft bell rang out somewhere near the top of the tower.

"Breakfast." explained Olympe as she turned and led him into the hall and around to the teachers table, some students were already seated and were either talking or eating their French cuisine, he noticed that the older students seemed to be positioned closest to the teachers table, and if he had to guess he would say that the 7th year students were positioned either side of the teachers and then the 6th, 5th, 4th, 3rd were alternated between the two sides, down to the 2nd and 1st years who were furthest away from the teachers and closest to the door, so from door all the way around the circle and back to the door the layout went 1st years, 3rd years, 5th years, 7th years, Teachers, 7th years, 6th years, 4th years and 2nd years.

On either side of the hall was a line of, what Harry guessed were Wood Nymphs, they were singing softly as a gentle backdrop to the quite chatter of the students. The Nymphs looked similar to young women except their hair was made out of vines and their skin looked like bark.

Olympe directed Harry to a chair at the end of the table teachers, next to one of the groups of 7th years. He observed a group of them a few seats along pretend to look at their food as he looked in their direction.

In a matter of minutes the hall was full and waiters began bringing in dishes and plates.

It was at this point, when the hall was full that Harry realised for the first time that the student population of Beauxbatons was entirely female and that there can not have been more than half a dozen men in the entire hall, four of whom were waiters who looked to be, if Muggles, in their forties and fifties so they were probably over seventy and the last two being elderly male Professors, both of whom had to be just a few years shy of Dumbledore, with rounded beards and very little hair on top.

He began to worry about the reason that the girls had been staring at him, he was the only male under the age of thirty in the entire school surrounded by at least three hundred young women, eighty of whom were over sixteen.

He inwardly gulped at the thought, especially as a fairly large number of them were looking at him admiringly.

Madam Maxine stood, towering over the other the other seated professors.

"Good morning," she greeted "Today we are joined by a new member of staff, allow me to introduce Professor Daniel Radcliffe."

Harry stood and bowed as the students and teachers applauded for him. He heard at least one of the students give him a wolf whistle, he wasn't quite sure if he should laugh or look embarrassed.

"Professor Radcliffe has managed to spare some time in his busy schedule to come to France just to teach you Defence Against Assault and Flying."

There was a murmur of excitement at the prospect of a Professor teaching two subjects especially one that required him to wear sports gear, the prospect of having a foreign teacher was also heavily whispered about. Harry was sure he heard one of the 7th years say something about hoping he was Italian.

"He may not be with us for long so please take advantage of the expertise he can impart, in addition he will not only be teaching 1st years to fly, he will be doing refresher courses for all years, Flying classes will fill Lesson Group 3."

There was another murmur of excitement from the older students.

He sat back down as the students began talking about the latest teaching appointment.

Harry began selected his breakfast off the plates in front of him, whilst talking quietly to the elderly male Professor beside him, who just happened to teach DADA, he had got quiet used to French cuisine while at the Delacour's and he had become quiet fond of it, he had noticed that the French cuisine was noticeably lighter than the food he was used to, but this was supplemented by serving more courses.

The way the food was distributed was very clever, the waiters placed the bowls and plates on a rail that ran all the way around the table; the food was then hovered along said rail until it reached the other end of the table where it would rise twenty centimetres before floating back in the opposite direction, when you want to take some food you simply tap on the bowl or plate and it would float out of the main stream of food and hover just in front of your plate, allowing you to take what you wanted, once finished with it you just tapped the bowl again and it returned to the rail, ensuring that everyone had the chance to get the food they wanted.

After about ten minutes he heard a slight cough to his right.

"Excuse me Professor."

He turned to look at the 7th year sitting next to him, she looked around his height, with green eyes and dark brown straight hair that fell to her waist, she could almost have been mistakenly called his sister.

"Yes." he replied pleasantly.

"My name is Monique, I am the Head Girl, Madam Maxine has instructed me to assist you in anyway that I can, whether you need a tour, help with your classes, help grading the student's homework, anything."

"Thank you," he replied, he could not help his mind thinking exactly how far she believed anything extended, it was at times like this that he was glad that he was mated as it meant that he could compare Monique to his mate….there was no comparison "I may take you up on that."

"May I ask you a personnel question Sir?" she asked shyly, looking over her shoulder he could see that the other 7th years on that side of the table were listening intently to the conversation.

"You can ask whatever you want, it doesn't mean that I have to answer." he said echoing Fleur word's to him.

She smiled shyly "How...how old are you?"

Harry smirked at the question, he thought it was going to be more personnel than that, he mentally recalled the cover story they had come up with for him, it had been made as truthful as possible as it was always easier to cover up a mistake if it is just a slight lie rather than a complete lie.

"I am seventeen." he replied, giving the age one year above his own, they got the feeling that the elder students would not want to be taught by someone younger than them.

Monique look surprised while the other girls talked excitably about their new prey.

"Shouldn't you still be at school studying for your NEWT's?" she asked.

"I get home tutelage, I am doing this as a favour to Madam Maxine and because she will allow me to study for EAGLE's while I am here."

If they didn't look surprised before they most definitely did now.

"But you haven't even done your NEWT's, how can you do an EAGLE without NEWT's!...Sir." she added hastily remembering that despite the fact that he was her age and incredibly attractive, he was still a Professor...twice over.

"Let's just say that I am good at Flying and DAA." he said with a smile.

"I bet you couldn't beat Harry Potter." said one of the girls behind Monique challengingly "I bet he could defeat you out in under a minute….and he's an excellent flyer."

"Violette," chastised Monique "He's a Professor."

The other girl looked suddenly abashed and very nervous, realising how impolite and rude the sentence may have sounded.

Harry chuckled "Do not worry; I don't expect to be treated like an ordinary Professor, especially as I am the same age as you and as for Mr. Potter," he grinned, trying hard not to laugh "Well you may be right."

Violette breathed a sigh of relief, brushing a lock of her shoulder length dark brown hair back behind her ear.

"So," continued Monique "Where are you from Professor?"

"England, I came over to see my girlfriend when Madam Maxine found me and asked me to take the job….jobs."

Over the course of breakfast he got to know Violette and Monique, Violette turned out to be the Deputy Head Girl and both she and Monique were in his first class.

They were also the first and the third best students in school and could apparently by the sound of their grades give Hermione a run for her money.

As breakfast came to a close the students headed to there classes while Harry went up to the roof of the tower where he had left his broom, from the top he could see his class of twenty 7th year on the lawn, chatting next to the line of brand new Nimbus's.

An evil idea came to mind as he surveyed them. After disposing of his robe he opened the glass panel in the dome, mounted his new broom, floated outside, closed the glass and went into the fastest dive of his life.

The broom was incredible, it responded to the slightest touch; Harry was beginning to suspect that all he needed to do to turn was to roll his eyes in the appropriate direction.

He pulled put of the dive with a meter to spare before flying up and over the roof of the Circle Building and shooting towards his class, full throttle, at ground level.

* * *

"Where did he say he was going?" asked Violette as she and the other 7th year girls chatted as they waited for their refresher course flying lesson.

"He said he had to get something," explained Monique "Though I don't know what, there are twenty one brooms and twenty of us so what else could he need."

"Hey…..what's that noise?" asked another 7th year curiously.

Listening the girls could hear what sounded like very fast wind movement.

Before any of them could look around, a broom flew straight over them, barely missing their heads.

Coming to a stop Harry looked back to see that most of his class had ended up on the ground.

Giving a low chuckle he flew back to them as they scrambled to their feet, some looking exited, some laughing, some dishevelled and the remaining few looking most put out.

"I apologise, I could not resist."

"Sir, is that….is that a 'Dragon'?" exclaimed one of the students.

"Yes, brand new, only ridden once, and that was in the last five minutes."

As he dismounted, the broom was instantly surrounded by the students, he managed to step out of the way as the broom was admired.

After five minutes of them doing this Harry decided that it was time to begin, he levitated the broom out of the mass of students, almost comically picking one up off the ground before she decided to let go.

"Come on, we have a lesson to start."

The girls all formed one straight line beside the brooms, clasping their hands behind their backs they all stood to attention; he wondered if all the students did that.

"As I understand it, my predecessor was fairly strict as regards the uses of a broom."

"Yes Sir." answered Monique, "She said that a brooms only purpose was to get from A to B Sir."

She sounded almost military as she played back the words he had already heard, the stance looked positively painful.

"You can relax, you don't need to stand bolt up right if you don't want to, I won't give you demerits."

Some of the girls exchanged looks before relaxing slightly, while other positively beamed at him and him and almost slumped, he noted that the Head and Deputy Head Girl merely moved to stand at ease. His thoughts wandered to the Tournament when he has seen the Durmstrang students enter the Great Hall in what can best be described as a military march; he was beginning to wonder if Hogwarts was the only school that didn't train its students in discipline.

"Would I be correct in saying then that you only know the basics of flying?"

"Yes Sir." responded Monique.

"Ok, can you all call the brooms from the ground and then hover about ten feet of the ground please."

"Errr Sir," began Monique "What do you mean 'call the broom'."

Harry looked at her, half expecting her to be joking but seeing the faces of the most of the group, they had no idea either.

Harry almost groaned, she must be joking, what had the last teacher done with them for the last seven years.

Harry summoned a Nimbus with his wand before dropping it on the ground and raising his arm over it.

"Up."

The broom instantly jumped into his hand, causing many gasps from the students.

"Try it, step up to the left side of the broom, put your hand over the broom and say 'Up'." he instructed before adding an afterthought "A merit for everyone who gets it first time."

Many of the students thought that would be an easy task and were fairly surprised when it did not work on their first try.

"With feeling, don't beg it, order it."

Only four had got it right first time.

"Excellent merits to Violette," he pointed at the next one,

"Florette." And the next,

"Lysette." And the next,

"Ninette."

Harry raised an eyebrow, he could see these four were a group; he would have been able to tell even if their names hadn't all finished with 'ette', they all had the cunning look in their eyes.

"Good, merits to you four." everyone else had the broom in their hand by now except for Monique who, he could tell was finding it very embarrassing, especially as she was Head Girl.

Harry moved closer, he was puzzled by the fact that the broom wasn't even moving, it should at least have been rolling around on the floor.

A though occurred to him as a possible explanation, though not something he had encountered before it made sense, looking closely he could see the outline of Monique's wand in her right hand wand holder on the inside of her blazer.

"Are you left handed Monique?" he asked.

"Yes." she answered confused.

"Step to the other side of your broom and use your left hand."

She did as he told her.

"Up."

The broom must have hurt at the speed that it rose, causing most to gasp at the cracking noise it made upon contact with Monique's hand.

"Good, that was probably the best calling I've seen today, even better than my first try actually, take two merits, it was my fault for not realising that people may be left handed, you're the first witch or wizard I have seen who is."

Monique blushed.

"Mount up."

The girls climbed onto there brooms.

"Wait, stop," said Harry "You ride side saddle?"

"That's how we were taught Sir, can we…." asked Monique as she and the other girls all brightened up at the possibility of the correct answer to Monique's next question "Can we ride…..normally?"

"If you want to." he responded.

Harry was sure he saw a couple of girls punching the air as he said it.

"Thank you Professor," beamed Monique "Riding side saddle was always so uncomfortable."

"I am not surprised, the charms on the brooms aren't designed for riding side saddle, it must have hurt like hell."

Several students laughed at such language from a Professor.

"Sir?" asked a Florette cautiously.

"Yes." Harry said turned to look at her.

"We can't ride normally, our skirts get in the way,"

Looking around Harry saw that she was not the only student having the problem, the school issue skirts for the older students were so close fitting that sitting on the brooms would reveal exactly what they were wearing underneath, which Harry was sure, by the looks a few of them sent him during breakfast, several of them wouldn't mind doing. Several looked like they might be planning to do just that if he did not think of something quickly.

Luckily an idea came to him just in time.

Drawing his wand he said a spell he had heard Ginny say her mother had used on her once when she had had to go into the fields surrounding The Burrow in winter without having a chance to change.

"Muto Vestis."

Florette's skirt transfigured into a pair of trousers.

"How about now?" he asked with a smile.

Florette almost beamed at the change in her garments, he could imagine how wearing those skirts might become uncomfortable after several years…. Not to mention the draft.

"Everyone; cast the same spell….Muto Vestis….You didn'r know this would be a charms lesson as well did you." He smiled

"Can we wear trousers to every lesson Sir?" asked Violette hopefully.

"All flying lessons yes, unless you want to ride around with your dresses hiked up and your underwear on show."

There was a splattering of giggles and a few mischievous looks exchanged.

Soon all the girls were mounted on their brooms and hovering several feet above the grounds, Harry quickly mounted the remaining Nimbus before shooting into the air to join them.

"Here are your instructions, as you have all been flying for at least seven years, I want to observe your skill level, I have been flying for that long and I am a good flier, but I have a friend who can barely hover a meter off the ground."

From the looks of some of the girls, they appeared to be having plenty of trouble just keeping their brooms level, he got the feeling that at least two of them were afraid of heights.

"I want you to gain a bit of height, then fly at whatever pace you are comfortable at towards that tree over there and fly back, it is not a race, I just need to observe your skill level."

The four girls he had given merits to earlier took off immediately, rocketing ahead of the pack with Monique just behind.

The rest were rather evenly spaced out and passed around the tree and back in a gradual trickle.

The four girls came back to hover beside him, their skill was evident in the way that they did the broom equivalent of a handbrake turn when coming to stop within two meters of him in a perfect straight line.

"You have done this before, haven't you?"

"Yes Sir," answered Violette "We all play Quidditch during the summer."

"What about you Monique?" he asked as she came to a more traditional if not slightly fast stop.

"Only your predecessor classes Sir."

"You're a natural then."

Monique blushed causing the four to laugh.

An hour of manoeuvres later Harry dismissed the class and returned the brooms to the closet, he had enlisted the four in teaching the others how to fly as their skill was easily at the same level as himself.

By the end of the lesson even the nervous few were comfortable flying at a reasonable travel speed.

He had DAA next.

* * *

He walked into the room that Olympe had said was his class room.

It was a wide open space, crash mats covered the floor, they were arranged in lines of colour to help divide the room up for duels.

In the centre was a slightly higher duelling strip for demonstration purposes, this could apparently be raised to give an even greater view or lowered to allow the middle section of the room to be used, there was also a ring painted on the floor for when they actually started doing practicing for real life duelling, not just the formal kind.

He heard a small knock at the door and turned to see a first year poking her head around the corner.

"Excuse me Sir, can we come in."

"Yes." he replied smiling "Please enter, place your bags against the wall, you only need your wands."

They placed their bags against the wall before lining up like his flying class had done; he was surprised to see such discipline from such young students, scanning the students he found the one he knew.

Gabrielle was in this class, he had to remember that she did not know who he was. It had occurred to him shortly after he had been given the teaching position that Gabrielle was only ten and he started school at eleven, apparently Beauxbatons offered an introduction year where they were taught about the Wizarding world and proper womanly behaviour. He wished that Hogwarts had done something similar, it would be a good idea for all the Muggle-Born students to learn about the Wizarding World before they started school, Beauxbatons actually brought all students in a year early to ensure that all the students started at the same level.

"Good morning."

"Good morning Sir." they chanted back to his great surprise.

"Welcome to Defence Against Assault, this is my first time teaching this class as well so please be gentle on me."

A couple of students laughed before looking worried and reassuming their military like stance.

"You are allowed to laugh you know, you aren't training to become Aurors, and you don't have to stand to attention."

Unlike the 7th years the 1st years immediately relaxed, looking more comfortable already, while several others looked uncertain before copying their classmates as the teacher did not tell them of for doing as he had said.

"Before I start teaching I would like to know if anyone here has any previous duelling experience."

For a moment no one moved before Gabrielle slowly raised her hand.

Harry should have expected that, her sister was a champion after all.

"Miss Delacour isn't it."

"Yes Sir," she answered surprised "How do you know my name?"

"I know your sister; I met her when she visited England," Harry subtly avoided mentioning the Tournament "Please come onto the platform."

She looked nervous and did not move.

"Do not worry, you won't get hurt."

She cautiously stepped up on to the platform and drew her wand.

Harry stepped up after her and moved to the other end of the platform.

"Who taught you duelling?" asked Harry although he was 90 certain he already knew the answer.

"My sister taught me sir, she's a champion duellist."

Harry nodded before continuing.

"I do not expect you to beat me as I have greater experience than you do, you can use any magic you wish to defeat me as long as the spell is not illegal or restricted. Do you understand?"

She nodded nervously.

Harry drew his wand and bowed to her, she bowed back, they both assumed duelling stances, Harry waited for her to attack.

After a few seconds of nothing he opened his mouth to tell her that she could begin when the first spell came flying at him.

He easily dodged it and fired a weak stunning spell back which she blocked with a partial shield before firing of a pair of disarmers which he dodged by turning sideways, one passing on either side of him, which was immediately followed up by a set of cords firing themselves at where his head had been.

He countered with a spread of three disarmers, one of which was dodged; the other was blocked but the last sending Gabrielle's wand sailing out of her hand, in a very courageous move she dived after it catching it in mid air and landing on the very edge of the platform.

Deciding to end the match Harry summoned her wand to his hand.

"Good, very good, take a merit for surviving against a more skilled opponent and another for the tactic you used at the beginning, waiting for me to become distracted before attacking, very good, a round of applause for Miss Delacour please."

Gabrielle blushed deeply as she got down of the platform to join her class mates.

"If you recall," continued Harry "You may have noticed that I did not use a curse to disarm Miss Delacour, I used a simple summoning charm, an important lesson is to think about what other spells could be used to defeat your opponent, not just the standard ones...the first think I will teach you will be the correct duelling stance, what you do is...


	27. CH27 The Last Will And Testament Of Ja

Chapter 27 – The Last Will And Testament Of James And Lily Potter

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:2nd August 2001 AD_

_Country:France – Pic Du Thaume_

_Location:Beauxbatons Academy Of Magic_

_Time:Afternoon_

Harry only had three lessons on his first day, but already he felt exhausted, the last flying lesson had taken a lot out of him as the first years were worse at flying than Neville and Hermione put together.

He collapsed into the chair in his office, quite content just to stay there all evening and night.

He mentally thanked himself that he had only had one lesson with each class as it meant no homework to mark.

He began to doze off in the comfy chair, ignoring the fact that it was not yet even five.

He was awakened several hours later by the sensation of warm lips on his own.

He did not need to open his eyes to see who it was; he would recognise those lips anywhere….and the link that flared when ever he came in contact with them.

He kissed her back, bringing his arms around her back he pulled her closer, feeling her back through the silk of her dress.

She pulled back slowly and he felt her slight weight shift off his lap.

He opened his eyes slowly to see Fleur sitting on the edge of his desk, wearing one of her silver silk dresses that only just past her knees.

She was sitting with her hands on her knees, leaning towards him with her head slightly dipped giving that seductive and incredibly sexy look that women get when they look through they're eye lashes.

"Did the Professor enjoy that?" she asked in her sexiest voice, he hated it when she did this because it meant he had no chance of resisting her, it was almost as bad as her Veela powers, not that she had used them on him since they had mated.

"Greatly," he replied playing along "Do it again before I give you a demerit."

She giggled which Harry thought made her look even prettier, if that was even possible.

"Yes Sir." she replied, purring out the title as she climbed off the desk, sat across his lap before turning to kiss him.

After several minutes they came up for air and she snuggled closer to him.

"How was your first day?"

"Tiring," he replied "Who ever though flying could be so exhausting, I'm not looking forward to Monday, I have two double DAA lessons with the 7th years and 6th years."

Fleur giggled as he groaned "If they are too hard on you, tell them to come and see me."

"Thank you….actually, while I think of it, at some point would you mind coming in for a demonstration duel?"

"Of course not," she smiled "Just tell me when you want me."

He wiggled an eyebrow and walked his fingers up her left leg.

"What if I said now?"

She giggled again and gave him a light swat before resting her head on his shoulder.

He picked her up, letting her lock her arms around his neck, it still surprised Harry that she weighed so little.

He carried her up the stairs, through his rooms (that he hadn't actually looked at yet) and up onto the roof.

"Wow." she exclaimed as he laid her down on the light blue carpet covering the floor, her clothes almost blending in with the floor "Arry this is amazing, I can't believe this place existed and I never found out about it."

Harry just sat there and watched as she stared in awe at the grounds below them, the breeze from the open dome window causing her hair to curl its way around her face, creating an image worthy of any Hollywood movie.

She looked at him, sensing his emotions and saw the happy expression on his face.

"What?"

"It's nothing."

"Seriously, what?"

"I was just….I was just reminded of how beautiful you are."

He brought the image of her sitting there to the front of his mind and sent it down the link (a handy little technique they had picked up since the mating).

She blushed as she received the image.

Harry topped it of by bringing his emotions for her to the surface and letting her see that part of his mind.

She took in a gasp and his Soul Ring glowed bright silver swirled together with green (the colours of love and happiness).

The sensations made her take his hand and pull him down to the floor and into a loving embrace.

"Oh Arry, it always surprises me just how strongly you feel for me."

"I will always feel that way." he whispered in her ear as he stroked her beautiful hair.

After several minutes they separated and laid down on the comfortable carpet, staring up at the stars.

* * *

When Harry awoke the next morning he saw Fleur lying beside him sleeping soundly.

He rolled over so that he could watch her sleep, one of his favourite pastimes.

He was always surprised by the fact that she always smiled while she slept, it always made him happy to see.

She awoke a few minutes after him and kissed him tenderly before the pair headed down the stairs into Harry's apartments.

Before they reached the flight of stairs that entered Harry's office, Fleur withdrew the Time Turner and transported them back twenty four hours.

As soon as the world settled they heard footsteps on the stairs.

"Quickly!" he whispered, pulling her into one of his rooms that turned out to be the bedroom.

They heard the other Harry and Madam Maxine pass the room before heading up to the roof; Harry carefully leaned around the corner to check that they had gone before directing Fleur back down the stairs to his office.

"That was too close." she breathed in relief.

"Sorry, I had forgotten that I had been shown the tower this morning."

"At least you are getting your tenses right." she smiled as they continued down the stairs.

They took the fireplace back to Chateau Delacour where Dimitri and Delphine were standing exactly where they had been when he had left the repeat before, of course for them less than five minutes had past, its was not an easy think to get used to.

"How was your first day of teaching?" asked Dimitri.

"Tiring," he replied as he yet again climbed back to his feet "I only had three classes but that was enough." he turned to Fleur "When did you teach your sister how to duel?"

"She helped me train actually, she helped me improve my reflexes for the Under Eighteens Duelling Championship at Beauxbatons; she is quite good with a fireball." she grinned.

Harry nodded before turning to Dimitri.

"Do I need to bring anything?"

"I would bring your key and your moneybag other than that I would just suggest removing those appearance spells, you still look a lot like William."

"That's something I have been meaning to ask," said Harry turning back to Fleur "Was it pure coincidence or did you deliberately make me look like Bill?"

Fleur looked at him closely, studying his features.

"I never actually noticed the similarity; I actually made you look that way because it looked good on you. You didn't….You didn't think I was trying to make you into a substitute did you?" she asked, her face looking slightly hurt at the thought that he might not trust her feelings for him.

"Before the bonding I did….slightly….but not since." he reassured her.

She breathed a sigh of relief as Harry drew his wand and cancelled the spells, though his scar had become visible during the night, he loved being able to do magic outside of school.

Harry disappeared quickly to go and get the items Dimitri had suggested as well as to quickly wash and change out of his work robes.

As he re-entered the Sitting Room he kissed a quick goodbye to Fleur before he and Dimitri entered the Fireplace.

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:3rd August 2001 AD_

_Country:France – Mont Blanc_

_Location:The Goblin Caves_

_Time:Morning_

Harry, as usual, got thrown out of the fireplace and ended up sprawled on the floor.

"You really don't have much luck with Fireplaces do you Harry?" chuckled Dimitri.

"What could have possibly given you that idea?" he replied sarcastically while climbing to his feet, while Dimitri cast a quick cleaning charm on his robes.

They were in what appeared to be a cave of sorts, the walls around them were dark grey stone which had been carved into the shape of a hall, intricate designs were cut into the rock face.

The fireplace was very large, very grand and had been carved straight out of the solid rock; it, like the walls, was covered in ornate designs, the rooms only sources of light were the fireplace and the lamps.

"This way Harry." indicated Dimitri as he directed him out of the hall and down a wide corridor, on either side of the doorway was a Goblin dressed in light armour and carrying a spear, they stood to attention as they passed.

The continued down the corridor until it widened and was joining by several other converging passages. On the way they were passed by several goblins, some wearing suits like the ones at Gringott's, others wearing armour and a few carrying spades or pickaxes or pushing wheel barrows full of twinkling rocks. Harry noted that the Goblins in light armour or carrying digging equipment were all larger and more heavily built than those in suits; presumably all Goblins were split that way.

As well as the Goblins, quiet a few humans could be seen in the corridors, most wearing Wizarding robes while a few wore what could best be described as digging outfits, but what surprised Harry most was the strange creatures which seemed to be halfway between a human and a Goblin, they were at least a foot taller at around one meter twenty, very heavily built wearing heavy armour or carrying heavy digging equipment with vast amounts of hair on their heads and chins and what appeared to be human faces, though it was hard to tell under all that hair.

"This is the Central Goblin Mining Complex in Europe Harry," explained Dimitri "Here they mine most of the Gold that the Wizarding world uses for its galleons, other than mining they also operate the Central Banking Office from here as well as the Goblin Parliament."

They took a left and ended up in a smaller corridor that appeared to be more ornately designed.

"Dimitri," asked Harry "What were those strange bearded creatures….they don't look like Professor Flitwick so they can't be Human Goblin hybrids….can they?"

Dimitri chuckled "No Harry, they are Dwarves; they are believed to be distant relatives of Goblins though no one is really sure, but regardless they both share a love for gold, most of the world doesn't care about Dwarves in the slightest, there is not a single government with an office dedicated to their welfare, but that is irrelevant to them as they rarely venture above ground, not because they can't, but because they live in caves and that is where they feel most comfortable. The Dwarf and Goblin societies long ago joined together to the benefit of both species, Dwarves are the best miners in the world and the Goblins are the best bankers and businessmen creating the perfect partnership. Dwarves get the gold from the ground while the Goblins get it from above. Dwarves are also excellent warriors and are the reason that the Magical World fears another Goblin war so strongly."

"Why?" asked Harry.

"Think about it Harry, would you rather have a smart but only eighty centimetre tall Goblin in light armour running at you or a slightly less intelligent but an extremely heavily built one metre twenty heavily armoured Dwarf come running at you with an appropriately sized weapon in hand being directed by Goblin commanders, added to the fact that Dwarf's can take a lot more punishment before they give up."

"I see, does that mean that Dwarves are not very intelligent?"

"Oh no, they are intelligent, but if you start trying to talk about inflation rates they will be completely lost, on the other hand if you talk to him about different types of volcanic geology he will explain it better than any human scientist that the world has ever scene?"

"Do the Dwarves have a separate Parliament or are they controlled by the Goblins."

"Oh no Harry, the Goblins and Dwarf's have a completely equal and very good partnership, despite the Goblins being more intelligent both sides know that it is better for them to work together, not that they would want to split. Year's back the Dwarves were ruled by the Dwarven Lords but they got incorporated into the Goblin Parliament centuries ago."

The corridor they were in opened out into what appeared to be a large office waiting room, this room was different from the others he has seen, the walls themselves seemed to be made out of black marble and the carvings were a lot more detailed and intricate, with white marble highlighting the details. There was a desk at one end of the room with a Goblin sitting at it, just like the Goblins and Gringott's the desks and chairs were a lot higher than necessary, at least six foot high.

They approached the desk and Dimitri spoke.

"Comte Dimitri Delacour and Mr Harry Potter to see the Goblin Parliament."

The Goblin looked at a sheet of parchment beside him and made a ticking motion over it, before standing and bowing to them.

"I shall inform the Parliament immediately, please take a seat, the Parliament will see you shortly Comte."

They nodded and moved to the seats on the other side of the room while the Goblin climbed down from his desk.

"Why was that Goblin so polite?" asked Harry quietly "Normally they seem more….more….blunt."

Dimitri smiled and leaned in to whisper his answer.

"Goblin politeness depends entirely on how much you are favoured by the Parliament, whether it be because of you wealth or for other reasons. In this case it refers to my bank balance and the fact that I treat goblins with respect….as well as owning a lot of very valuable Gringotts shares."

Harry nodded his understanding as a large pair of double doors at the other end of the room which were guarded by a pair of Dwarves swung open and the Goblin returned.

"Comte Delacour, Mr Potter, The Goblin Parliament will see you know."

The pair stood and walked through the doors which closed behind them.

The room they entered was perfectly circular, at least twenty meters in diameter with a very large domed roof made out of white marble which must have been at least the same distance in height, there was a light source of some kind in the roof, it may have bean a hole to the world above but Harry couldn't tell.

Around the edge of the room ran a very high raised desk of black marble, at which sat Goblins interspersed with Dwarves, at least thirty of them in total at least two thirds of them were Goblins, all looking extremely old (as far as Harry could tell), the Dwarf contingent of the Parliament had long grey and white beards, while the Goblins were extremely wrinkled and had very stern faces.

At the far end of the room was an area where two extremely white haired Dwarves and an impossibly aged looking Goblin sat on a slightly higher platform to the others, presumably they were more important than the rest and the Goblins, they looked even more wrinkled than all the others put together, thought their cold hard eyes could still be seen staring out from under their heavy eyelids, Harry could tell just by looking at them that they were not the sort of eyes that you wanted to try to mess with.

Dimitri bowed once they reached the centre of the room and Harry followed his lead.

"Comte Delacour," began the Dwarf on the left of the raised platform in a particularly gruff voice "We know why you have come."

"That will save me having to explain then." replied Dimitri comically.

"What we want to know is why we should follow you in the war." said the Goblins in the centre, his voice was low, croaky and strained.

"I understand Lord Rangok," nodded Dimitri before turning to the rest of the hall "Honourable Lords, we all know that a war is coming and we must all decide which side we plan to take, as I see it this Parliament has several choices...You could join Dumbledore's side, but we all know that Dumbledore, as great a man as he is, does not include those he does not completely trust in his plans...You could join Voldemort, but we know that he hates your kinds and you would therefore be hunted down and killed, you could side with one of the European governments but to date none of them have done anything to prepare for the upcoming war….You could strike out on you own, but you do not have the numbers to fight that way...You could remain hidden in your mountains, but what would then happen if we lost...Voldemort would come for you and he would be prepared to face an army of Goblins and Dwarves, that leaves you one choice...join us, we would include you at all stages of planning and discussion, you would be a key core member of our force, we would jointly decide when to act, when to intervene and when to strike at our enemies….and thusly you would share in the glory, credit and...Profits!...of victory."

There was a mumbling around the hall as the Goblins and Dwarves exchanged views.

Harry was almost surprised by the speech, he was expecting an emotional motivational number and instead he received a very logical argument.

"Wise council Comte." continued Lord Rangok "But tell the Parliament why we should follow a sixteen year old boy."

"Because this boy has faced more than most of Dumbledore's side put together," replied Dimitri hotly "Because he has faced Voldemort five times and lived, because he is the only person other than Dumbledore that Voldemort fears...and because he is the only person able to defeat him."

There it is, there's the motivational bit.

"You have always been very persuasive Comte Delacour," smiled the Dwarf on the left, at least it looked like a smile, it was hard to tell through the beard "But we are interested to here what Mr Potter has to say."

Harry gulped and stepped forward, Dimitri had said to leave the talking to him and now he was in the spot light, sending Dimitri a glance of reassurance, even though he was the one needing reassurance he took a breath before speaking, praying that he wasn't setting them up for a repeat performance of the Veela Colony.

"I am sure you are aware of all the legends surrounding my life," he began "First I defeat Voldemort when I am still a baby, then I face him numerous times and I still manage to survive, not to mention the Tournament, basilisks and other assorted evil creatures….but I didn't survive a single one of the confrontations due to skill or some special magical power that I possess, I survived because I was lucky, but now that is changing. The Delacour's have hired some of the best duellists, trainers, martial arts experts and master Occlumens in the world to train me, I am using a Time Turner and spending seven days to every one, this is my sixth run through of today, by the time I return to Hogwarts I plan to be able to take down any duellist that would care to challenge me….In every confrontation with Voldemort so far I have always been running, I have never actually openly gone to face him. Next time will be different, next time I intend to fight and what's more...I intend to win."

The hall remained silent for a few moments until the Dwarf spoke.

"We will notify you of our decision before the end of the day."

Both bowed before walking out of the room.

As they walked through the doors and they closed Harry breathed a sigh of relief.

"Nice speech Harry," complimented Dimitri placing a hand on his shoulder as they began walking back towards the corridor "Right to the point, always wise with Goblins."

"Mr Potter." addressed the Goblin at the desk.

"Yes." Harry replied politely.

"The Head of our Accounts Department would like a word with you Sir."

"Thanks." replied Harry curiously as he and Dimitri left the room before taking the turning of towards said department.

They reached the Accounts Department after several minutes of wandering through passages and a few open halls that appeared to be as busy as platform 9 and ¾ on the first day of school; luckily Dimitri knew where he was going as they all looked the same to Harry.

The Accounts Department looked like an enlarged version of the Gringotts in Diagon Alley.

They made their way to the Head Goblins desk. Dimitri cleared his throat causing the Goblin to look slowly in their direction, wearing that sneer that they had a habit of wearing when disturbed.

As soon as the Goblin laid eyes on the pair his face changed immediately as he sat up and straightened his jacket.

"Comte Delacour, Mr Potter, what can I do for you Sirs?"

"The Goblin outside the Parliament Room said you wanted to see me." explained Harry.

"Indeed yes Mr Potter," smiled the Goblin climbing down the steps behind his desk "My name is Gristleback, I am the Head of the Accounts Department, would you please follow me."

They followed him into an office, inside where two chairs in front of a desk (which was actually normal sized), in the back wall was what appeared to be a panel of some kind, though it had no handle or visible method of opening it, other than that the room was almost completely bare except for the wall carvings and large fireplace.

Gristleback walked behind the desk and opened the safe by running his finger down the sides; he withdrew a sheet of parchment before closing it and moved to the desk as the pair sat down opposite him.

"You are Harry James Potter."

"Yes." Harry answered confused.

"Son of James and Lily Potter of Godrics Hollow."

"Yes." he repeated.

"Formalities," explained Gristleback "I have to follow procedure before revealing the contents of a persons Will."

Dimitri glanced as Harry, his eyes had visibly darkened, Dimitri prayed that what they were about to hear did not send him catatonic again.

"As you are technically a minor it is customary for your guardians to be present but as you are currently in the process of taking your guardians to court for their miss treatment of you and as you are staying with the Comte that technicality can be overlooked."

Harry nodded his understanding, though he was visibly stiffer.

"This is the last will and testament of Lily and James Potter."

"My parents!" exclaimed Harry "But...but I thought this would be the will of Sirius Black."

"Oh no Mr Potter, his will is being investigated by the British branch of our bank, apparently there are complications due to his criminal record, your parents will was handed over to us at central office as it regards a major Wizarding family, a large inheritance and it could not be read out until you turned sixteen."

Harry leaned back in his chair, he had never even thought about his parents Will before, he just assumed they had left him the money in his bank vault and that was it.

"Would you prefer to hear the entire will or just the summary Mr Potter?" asked Gristleback.

"Just the summary please." replied Harry quietly.

"Speaking simply the will states that you are the only beneficiary of the will and that you will receive your inheritance as soon as you are legally declared an adult by Wizarding and Muggle law, there are more details regarding that but I will return to that in a minute if I may. In the case of your parents untimely death your inheritance and your guardianship would be passed over to your godfather Sirius Black for safe keeping...Unfortunately due to his criminal record he was disqualified as a suitable guardian, as was Remus Lupin because of his Werewolf status and Peter Pettigrew because he was believed at the time to have passed on."

Harry half hissed, half sneered as the last name was read out, it angered him that had Sirius been locked up without supposedly killing Wormtail's, then he would have been raised by the treacherous little rat.

"As a result," continued Gristleback, who Harry had just realised did not automatically assume that Peter was dead "You're inheritance was placed in a trust fund and another vault was set up for your usage that always contained a certain amount of currency to allow you to buy your school books etcetera, until you could take control of you main vault. Now we come to the matter of you being declared an adult. Your parents considered the possibility that you might be placed with your aunt and uncle so they included a clause in their will."

Harry leaned forward in his chair, what had his parents planned.

"If there was even a single report that you were being mistreated or abused by them then you were to be declared an emancipated minor immediately and if you were under the age of sixteen given to Albus Dumbledore to look after, but of course that does not apply and more."

"I think congratulations are in order Harry." smiled Dimitri.

"Indeed," agreed Gristleback "But we have done some research and we have discovered something troubling."

"What?" asked Harry, he knew it wouldn't last long.

"We have discovered that there were reports of suspected child abuse being filed against the Dursley's by several of the occupants of their street going all the way back to when you were five years of age."

"What!" roared Dimitri, jumping to his feet "Why were they not acted upon?"

"It appears that the English Ministry of Magic went to great lengths to ensure that they were hushed up, though as of yet we do not know exactly why."

Dimitri looked thoughtful attempting to find a reason for the cover up, it was at this time that something occurred to Harry.

"As Sirius and the others couldn't take care of my inheritance and I know that the Dursley's know nothing about my Gringotts vault….who has been taking care of my parent's money all these years?"

Dimitri and Gristleback both looked up, Dimitri snapping his fingers in understanding as Gristleback reaching for a piece of parchment, scribbled something quickly before opening what looked like a shoot in the wall and placing it inside sending it whistling down a hidden pipe in a gust of wind.

"Harry I think you have just hit the nail on the head there," said Dimitri, he turned to Gristleback "Am I correct in thinking that unless prior arrangements have been made, the government becomes the care taker of the estate until adulthood?"

"Yes Comte." nodded Gristleback.

"Please tell me you aren't saying that Fudge is in control of my inheritance." groaned Harry leaning back in his chair.

"Yes Mr Potter," replied Gristleback "For at least part of the time, Minister Fudge has held his position since you were eight years of age but before that he was first the Advisor to the Ministry and before that the Head of the Accounts Department. If you are correct then I would guess that having possession of your account would make him look like a very successful member of the Ministry. Technically they are not aloud to use any of it without prior agreement from the bank with written permission defining exactly how the money is to be used and any monetary units withdrawn must be returned to the account with appropriate interest within a set time frame."

Dimitri nodded his agreement.

"And as your inheritance is quiet large I am not surprised he did not want to let you have it back, that note I just sent down was a request for a full investigation of your account and the entire history of transactions going back sixteen years, I have also frozen the account so no more money can be extracted except by you or the bank until the enquiry is completed ….if it turns out that they have been using the money from your account for any reason other than its maintenance and in your direct interest, firstly the bank will sue them for the work hours they would have wasted with the transactions and then I recommend you sue them to get every single knut including the interest that you should have earned on the account back."

Harry smiled evilly "That would definitely be a fun way to get back at Fudge and the Ministry."

Dimitri smiled at Harry's expression, from what he had heard from his daughter about Hogwarts houses Harry definitely has some Slytherin in him.

"There is definitely some snake in you Harry."

"Why do you say that?" Harry asked innocently.

"No Gryffindor could ever wear that look."

Harry grinned before returning to face the Goblin.

"What were you saying about being legally declared an adult?"

Gristleback turned to Dimitri.

"Comte, as a member of The Council of Power you have the authority to declare Mr Potter an emancipated minor here and now."

Dimitri nodded before turning to Harry drawing his wand.

"Please stand Harry,"

He did as Dimitri aimed his wand "Harry James Potter, I Comte Dimitri Delacour, Head of Delacour House and it's Estate, member of The Council of Power hereby declare that in the eyes of Wizarding and Muggle Law that you are legally declared emancipated, with all the rights and responsibilities that Wizarding Law entitles you to." there was a short flash of white before the room returned to normal "Congratulations Harry."

"Thanks….I think...err, can I ask a question?"

"Of course Harry." replied Dimitri.

"What did all that mean?"

Dimitri looked at him for a moment before bursting out laughing.

"I do apologise Harry, let me explain, basically I have just made you into a legal adult as far as Wizarding and Muggle law in concerned, which means 1. You will have access to your family vaults, 2. You can buy alcohol and cigarettes, which you can not in the Muggle world, not that you would anyway, 3. You can get married and engage in legal physical relationships; actually you can do both of those last two now that you're sixteen anyway," said Dimitri with a knowing smile "And 4. That you can do anything that by law an adult can do, for example...magic."

Dimitri finished with a smile.

"Oh, ok then." smiled Harry "That might not be so bad."

Dimitri turned back to Gristleback.

"What exactly does the inheritance consist of?"

Gristleback examined the parchment and raised an eyebrow.

"Firstly there is the content of the Potter Family Vault consisting of a rather large sum of currency along with many shares in companies and many personnel effects, there is also the ownership of several properties; firstly in Wales there is Godrics Hollow, your parents house on the site of the ancestral home of Godric Gryffindor, I recommend that you turn down any offers to buy the site Mr Potter as any offer will be far too low for such a historically valuable piece of land, there is also a medium sized mansion in Scotland and the surrounding lands known as The Potter Estate, the ancestral home of the Potter family."

Harry smiled slightly, he now owned both his parent's house and his families ancestral home so even if Dumbledore did find out where he was he could no longer send him back to Little Winging as he could no longer call Pivet Drive home.

"Other than that there is just the matter of your titles." finished Gristleback.

"Titles?" Dimitri and Harry asked simultaneously.

"Yes Sirs, each of the two properties has attached land and as a result you have titles to accompany them, both properties including villages, the residents of whom all pay you rent, your land equates to around two thousand acres over both estates, Godrics Hollows is on the edge of a valley backed by mountains with three small villages in the valley with around fifty tenants overall, while The Potter Estate is set on a hill in a mountainous area with the land consisting of a couple of hundred acres immediately around the house and another seven hundred or so around a larger village further down the mountain with at least seventy five tenants, all of whom are Muggles but they are all aware of magic, they are very isolated communities."

"What are the accompanying titles?" asked Dimitri curiously.

"The Potter Estate grants you the title of Thane Potter as well as formally acknowledging you as the head of the Potter family."

"What is a Thane?" asked Harry confused.

"If my memory serves me correctly Harry, a Thane is the Scottish version of a Baron which is a low rank of peerage in the United Kingdom."

"That is correct Comte Delacour, though the title of Thane is rarely used nowadays."

"What was the other title?" asked Dimitri.

"There are actually two others for Mr Potter to inherit; from your mother's family you receive the rank of Knight, earning you the title of Sir Harry James Evans."

"I didn't think knighthoods could be passed down?" said Harry confused.

"Not in the Muggle world Mr Potter but the knighthood came from your Great Grandfather Evans who was a Pure-Blood wizard and in the Wizarding World knighthoods can be made hereditary, unlike the other titles this one has no base so to speak as it is merely passed down through the blood and is not dependant on property."

"Wait a minute; you just said that one of my mother's relatives was a Pure-Blood wizard?"

"Yes Sir, he and his wife were both Pure-Bloods, both their offspring turned out to be Squibs, then your mother became the first member of the family in over a generation to be a witch."

"Wait….that means that….Petunia….is a Squib." calculated Harry.

"Yes Sir, which makes you a Pure-Blood instead of a Half-Blood as although there has been no magic in her family for a generation all the family members were merely Pure-Blood Squibs."

Harry nodded, that was why Petunia hated his mother so much, she got the brake and became the witch, the special one in the family.

He also chuckled at the fact that had Voldemort realised that he was not a Half-Blood, he may not have chosen Harry to be his 'equal' and therefore he may not have been defeated the first time.

"Dare I ask what the last title is?" said Harry nervously returning to the subject at hand.

Gristleback smiled and read of the papers in front of him.

"The last title relates to the ownership of Godrics Hollow and earns you the prestigious title of Viscount Gryffindor."

"I'm sorry can you repeat that?" asked Dimitri stunned.

"The title of Viscount Gryffindor, although Mr Potter or rather Viscount Gryffindor is no blood relation to the original bearer, one of his ancestors married a descendant of Gryffindor and so he holds the rights to the title."

"What is a Viscount?" asked Harry turning to Dimitri.

Dimitri turned to Harry, his expression positively beaming.

"Basically Harry it means you are only one level or peerage lower than I am, I can now safely say that any reservations I may had had about allowing my daughter to court out of the peerage to a, and please forgive the term, a commoner are now completely groundless."

Harry turned back to Gristleback, still not quite believing what he was hearing.

"So let me get this straight I now have the titles of Viscount Gryffindor, Thane Harry James Potter and Sir Harry James Evans."

Gristleback nodded "Yes Viscount, though you can also be addressed as Lord Viscount, Your Excellency, Lord Thane, your Lordship, Laird and Lord Knight and all these titles can be used in both the Muggle and Wizarding World, the titles of Viscount and Baron also gives you hereditary seats in both the Muggle House of Lords and the British Wizengamot and the right to demand a sitting of the British Wizengamot or a private meeting with either the British Muggle Monarch or Britain's Minister of Magic."

A huge grin spread on Harry's face at the prospect of being able to force Fudge to meet with him.

"Why do I get the feeling that you will make Fudge very aware of those privileges of yours Harry." grinned Dimitri.

"The thought had occurred to me," he smiled before something occurred to him "The rent and shares that I own aren't in Fudge's hand's are they?" asked Harry.

"No Viscount, only fixed holdings and monetary units are handed over to the Government, Gringotts keeps control of anything that can alter like incoming or outgoing monies, the shares you own in several companies have been managed by us and have been bringing in a steady rate for many years now and the rents have been kept at a fixed and reasonable level since we took control, but once the money is collected it is placed in your vaults and handed to the Government."

"I bet Fudge loved that," said Harry "All that money going straight to his control."

"Rest assured Viscount that when we have both sued your Government they will be considerably poorer than they are now." smiled Gristleback.

"Please, call me Harry."

"As you wish.…Harry." replied the Goblin surprised, obviously not expecting to receive such an offer of friendship from a human.

"Is there anything else?" asked Dimitri.

"There is one matter that we are looking into, but we should be able to get back to you on that point shortly, so apart from that there is only giving the Vis….giving Harry the keys to his estates; the Ministry should have taken care of them too but I get the feeling from our previous dealings with your Ministry that they will have just left them to rot these last fifteen years, here are your new keys."

The Goblin withdrew three keys from the inside of a desk draw, he handed them to Harry, one was small and gold like his Gringotts key with the number 339 printed on it, while the others were larger gold door keys with small red shields on them.

Examining closer Harry could see that on the shields were a pair of crossed wands with a forward facing stags head in front, the shields flashed and changed to show (still on a red background) a crossed sword and what appeared to be a wooden stick (that wasn't a wand), behind which was a pair of dragon like wings with a pair of sapphire reptilian eyes at the very front.

"What just happened to this crest?" asked Harry.

"The original crest Harry was that of your parents and the one you see now is your own crest, important Wizarding family's normally posses a crest to give them a position of greater power, the crest is generated from a variety of things ranging from your likes and dislikes, your accomplishments and achievements and you strengths and specialities, some of the items on the crest might be unfamiliar as the events which affect them have not occurred yet, rest assured you will come to realise why each item is on your shield." smiled Gristleback.

"There are two types of crest," continued Dimitri "One such as yours where each Head of House has his or her own and the other where there is just one crest for the entire family line, the Black's and Malfoy's have this sort of crest, this type will only occasionally change when the bloodline changes."

There was a knock at the door and a Goblin entered carrying a black leather bound folder at least three inches thick, he handed it to Gristleback before exiting.

"This is a ledger of your parents account, including details on their holdings, shares, monetary worth and vault contents." explained the Goblin handing Harry the folder which he eyed cautiously.

"Do not worry Harry, only the top thirty pages at the most will be of interest, the rest is transaction history, including monthly credits and debits, when you hire a lawyer to sue the British Ministry he will wish to see that. That concludes our business Harry, we will contact you with the results of the enquiry, if you want you could leave now or alternatively you could go to your new vault if you wish."

Harry thought for a second before answering.

"Let's go to the vault."

* * *

What followed was the most interesting Gringotts cart ride either of the humans had ever experienced, it started perfectly normally with the three of them getting into a cart (albeit a slightly more luxurious one) and trundling of down the tracks.

After at least five minutes of travel Dimitri leaned forward so that his head was nearer Gristleback, they were passing down a steep slope so the wind was making it harder to hear.

"How far from here?"

"Nearly there Sir, we are approaching the gateway now Sir."

Before either of the humans had the chance to ask what the gateway was they both felt the sharp pull behind their navel signifying that a portkey had been activated, but unlike a portkey it last for no more than a split second, looking around neither could see anything different, the Goblin hit the breaks rapidly as the rails returned to running horizontally, bringing the cart came screeching to a halt just beside the vault.

"Vault 339."

"What was that?" asked Harry getting out of the cart slightly dizzily after the rapid stop.

"A gateway, it works similarly to your portkeys, except ours work by moving through them and are instant, the gateways link all the Gringotts banks all over the world allowing you to access your vault wherever you are on the planet."

"Ingenious." commented Dimitri as he regained his equilibrium, earning a toothy smile from Gristleback, an expression that still send chills down most humans spines.

The Goblin moved to the vault and placed Harry's key in the hole (he had taken it back before they began the journey; Harry later learned that he used the key to ensure they went to the correct branch of Gringotts).

The key clicked in the lock before the Goblin gave it back to Harry and stood back.

The door swung open to reveal, not one of the normal walk in vaults where you could reach the back in five strides, but a large room at least the size of any of the Hogwarts classrooms, there were stacks of galleons, but far from that being all, there was also more impressively huge stacks of twenty centimetre gold ingots, along with absolute masses of personnel artefacts, Harry had never seen so much money in all his life.

"I must say Harry I'm impressed," smiled Dimitri "Whatever your parents did for a living certainly made them rich people, this looks to be around a twentieth of the size of my family vault, but ours has been building for at least ten generations, to earn all this in only a few generations is very impressive."

Gristleback made what they thought was a disapproving sound, turning Dimitri glared at him, while Harry looked confused.

"My apologize," bowed Gristleback when he saw their expressions "I was not disapproving of your parents bank balance I was merely doing a mental valuation of this vault and it is at a guess only a tenth of what should be here."

Both the men raised their eyebrows in shock.

"It appears that the Ministry has taken a lot more than we thought," admitted Gristleback "And in doing so has made a mockery of Gringotts bank, with your permission I would like to request that you allow the bank itself to get your money back for you along with some compensation for misusing the guardianship of the vault."

Harry accepted immediately, one think that he had learned from Fleur during their conversations was that when Goblins agreed to do something...they do it, and what's more they do it very quickly and very efficiently, and even more so when their reputation is at stake, she had quoted a story that Bill had once told her:

'_If you steel from a customer of Gringotts, not only will they sue the world to get your money back, they will also take the same amount of the thief's own money as compensation and then cut the thief's hands of to make sure that they can not re-offend.'_

Fleur had told Harry that she didn't believe the last part but the first two lines were probably accurate.

Harry walked into the vault and looked around, further in he could see tables covered in books, wooden chests covered in ornate designs, wardrobes with fine robes hanging from the doors and enough furniture to fill a small house.

In the centre of the room was a round table with four small boxes on them. Two were labelled LP, one labelled JP and the last just had a P on the top.

Curiosity overcame Harry and he picked up the box with only a P on it.

Inside was a signet ring made out of gold, with his parents crest upon it; the details were highlighted in white gold on black onyx with a pair of tiny diamonds for the eyes.

The ring flashed and the crest changed to display his own; the shield edge turned into white gold while the back of the shield turned (if Harry hadn't known the substance didn't exist) into what looked like red onyx, the wooden stick and the sword turned into white gold while the wings appeared as black onyx, finally on top of all that was set a pair of oval shaped sapphires arranged to look like eyes positioned in the centre of each wing.

"I must say Harry that is a most interesting crest you have." commented Dimitri as he looked over Harry's shoulder before examining the table "That appears to be your house ring Harry, as the heads of a major Wizarding family that ring is yours to bare."

Dimitri revealed his own left hand; on his ring finger was a similar ring to Harry's own except the crest was that of a pair of bird wings with a flame positioned in front of it.

"You can tell I'm married to a Veela can't you." he smiled.

Harry removed the ring from the box and went to slip it onto the same finger that Dimitri wore his ring on, he paused when he realised that Fleur's Soul Ring was already there, he paused for a moment, considering moving the ring to his other hand before dropping the signet ring into his left hand then slipping it on to the middle finger of his right.

Watching Harry's choice, Dimitri smiled at his decision, leaving his daughters ring on his ring finger made the prospect of one day having a son arise in his mind.

Harry turned to Dimitri.

"There isn't a specific finger the ring is supposed to be worn on is there?"

"In Muggle society they use the ring or the little finger, wizards generally use the middle or ring finger, the hand does not matter….do you mind if I ask a question Harry?"

Harry shook his head.

"If you had to wear a ring but not either of the rings that you now have, which finger would you wear it on?"

Harry, although confused by the question though about his answering before tapping his middle finger on his right hand.

"I though so," smiled Dimitri before explaining his interest "Most family rings are magical, they are bound to the blood line, I was wondering because if that was your most comfortable finger it proves that your family ring belongs to you as it made you place Fleur's ring on the next most suitable finger, in this case your ring finger, that is why my wedding ring," he said revealing his right hand "Is on the wrong hand."

Looking at Dimitri's hand, his wedding ring was indeed there, slipped on to his ring finger.

Harry noted how Dimitri smiled at this point; he wondered if (just as a hypothetical and purely theoretical situation) if he were to ask Fleur to marry him….would Dimitri allow it?

He sent a glance at the other boxes on the table; opening them he discovered two gold band wedding rings with writing on the side and a silver engagement ring with a ruby set in the middle, surrounded by tiny pearls.

Harry smiled as he picked up a wedding ring, the writing around the edge Harry couldn't read but Dimitri could as he read off of the other.

"It's Latin….'May this band represent the love of the future of the Potter family'."

Harry placed his parents rings back inside the boxes and closed them, before wandering around the vault more.

They stayed in the vault for almost an hour finding all sorts of weird and wonderful things, varying from photo albums (which Harry took with him) to what appeared to be a simple Wizarding set of armour which by the look of them hadn't been touched in centuries, the armour including a pair of dragon hide boots, matching dragon hide gloves and a thick brown animal skin vest with a bright red dragons head embroidered on the chest, Harry thought how well they would go with his dragon hide cloak.

They finally left the vault, Harry toping up his money pouch before he went, the coins chinking as he walked, as he passed the Goblin he paused and turned to him.

"Is there an easier way to access my money than this?" he said tapping his money pouch.

"Indeed there is Harry, just yesterday we started testing a Money Bag scheme," he withdrew a small black pouch from his pocket and showed it to Harry "It is experimental so we do not know how well it will work yet. You simply reach into the pouch and the correct amount of money will be there for you, there is also another system we have just introduced for those wizards and witches that have frequent communication with the Muggle world, it is called a Debit Card."

He withdrew a card from his other pocket "That will work in any Muggle shop, the four digit Pin number is irrelevant as the card responds to your will, so as long as you have given someone else permission then they will be able to use it in your place, the card will also disguise itself in the eyes of Muggle's as one of its non-magic counterparts to avoid people asking questions and both are relatively low priced."

"Can I order one of each please?"

Gristleback immediately walked to the nearest table in the vault and withdrew a quill, form and ink from his robes; he scribbled something quickly before indicating where Harry should sign.

Gristleback then handed Harry the card, it was black displaying his crest, he slipped it into his pocket, while the Goblin placed Harry's vault key onto the front of the money bag were it embroidered itself into it, leaving only a pattern of the key and a matching crest.

"Only you or a Gringotts Goblin can remove that key."

The Goblin then handed the bag over while Harry emptied his gold from his pouch back into one of the piles which instantly neatened.

They headed out of the vault and back along the tracks, back in France they said goodbye to Gristleback before entering the Fireplace back to the Chateau.


	28. CH28 The First Contingent

Chapter 28 – The First Contingent

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:2nd August 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:Afternoon_

"Congratulations Harry." smiled Dimitri as he climbed out of the fireplace and pulled Harry to his feet "Or should I say Viscount, I think I can safely say I don't know of anyone else who ever gained that much power in a single day."

"Yes well, I just hope we don't get into a battle any time soon, leading a group of five students is one thing, but leading a whole army of Goblins and Dwarves is another entirely."

"You shouldn't have to worry about that too much Viscount, all you should have to do is to say where you want them and then the Goblin commanders will control the actually battle."

"Well that's a relief at least." Harry sighed as they walked into the hall into the dinning room where the staff had laid out a small lunch for them "Who were you planning for us to recruit next?"

"Well obviously we don't know yet whether the Goblins will actually side with us yet," Dimitri replied, seating himself at the head of the table "If they do that will be a good start, it is unfortunate that we could not sway the Veela, but maybe nearer the end of summer when you have had more training we can try again. After that there are quite a few options, there are the Valkyrie's of course, I don't think we should try to sway the giants or the Werewolves as Dumbledore and Voldemort are both of them and it might reveal us to soon if we tried, but it would also be useful to have some human allies."

"I have a few ideas about that?"

"Do tell." smiled Dimitri.

"Well I think I might know of a few people who will side with us."

"Let me guess," grinned Dimitri "The DA?"

"Yes, a couple of them are now inside the Order, it would probably be a good idea to have some spies inside Dumbledore's circle, so to speak."

"Espionage, there is definitely some Slytherin in you Viscount." grinned Dimitri

"The sorting hat nearly put me in Slytherin actually; it is only because I met Malfoy before hand that I asked not to be in that chuckled.

"Ok Harry, I'll stop. Did you have anyone else in mind?"

"A couple of people, I thought maybe the remainder of the latest generation of Weasley, Nymphadora Tonks and maybe Remus Lupin, though I am not quite sure whether the last two will join us or reveal us to Dumbledore, they both appear very loyal but it would be very useful to have them on our side."

"Agreed, a Metamorphmagus and a Werewolf would be most useful."

"The only problem is that if they so no and we wipe their memories, because obviously they can not be allowed to know who we are if they are not on our side, but if they even slightly suspect then Dumbledore will likely probe their minds and I don't think any of us could create a memory charm powerful enough to prevent him seeing through it."

"That is easily solved; Fleur has told me that the Orders Headquarters, even though I do not know where it is, is protected by a Fidelius Charm. We can create a similar spell to protect the secret of who is with us and who we are, probably setting a couple of Secret Keepers who are able to tell others the secret to others, even torture can not force a person who is not a Secret Keeper to reveal the secret."

"Good, can I also suggest that we do not tell everyone that I am the General, I know we have to tell some of them, but can we make it look like I am merely on our side."

"Good idea, but lets sort that out later, I think you need an afternoon off, and I know the best way to relax."

"What?" asked Harry sceptically.

"Go and change into a pair of jeans and then meet me back down here in five minutes." He said getting up and heading out of the room, leaving a slightly worried Harry to go and get changed.

* * *

Few minutes later Harry met up with Dimitri before being led outside and around the side of the house. 

They headed towards a set of buildings that Harry had not been to yet, he had run past them everyday but being very tired when he got to this point in the run he never actually looked at them in any detail.

They entered what appeared to be a yard of some kind between the buildings, with what looked like stalls facing out into the yard.

Harry got his first hint at what was inside the stalls when he heard a snort from the nearest stall.

Fully entering the yard Harry saw what caused of the noise. Inside the stool was a large whitish grey Pegasus.

"Is that…."

"The same type of horse that pulls the Beauxbatons carriage, not quite. Abraxan's pull the carriage; this is a Granian, it's smaller and faster than the Abraxan, and is just right to fly on, though I have heard that you prefer Thestral's."

"You do know that I can't actually ride," Harry said quickly, fighting Death Eaters was easy, all you had to do was not get hit, but flying…. "All we did was to hold onto their manes while they flew to the Ministry."

"And that is why I am going to teach you, but don't worry we won't be flying yet," he said directing Harry further along the row of stalls.

In each stall was either a Granian, an Abraxan, another variety of flying horse or a normal four legs, no wings horse. They stopped when they reached the end pair of stalls, inside were a pair of large black stallions.

"Can you get this one out Harry, while I do the same for the other." smiled Dimitri as he opened up the other stall.

Harry looked nervously at the beast in the stall in front of him, he was trying to figure out why he had no problems with Thestral's but a normal horse seemed terrifying to him. If anything it should be less terrifying than a Thestral, heaven knows why it wasn't, probably because it was less intelligent.

He slowly slid the bolt on the door across and slowly opened the door.

"Nice horsey, nice horse, don't do anything unexpected….please."

He heard Dimitri chuckle from the next stall, as well as the sounds of the horses hooves on the stone paving outside the stalls.

Walking closer to the horse, who had until this point paid no attention to Harry what so ever and had merely continued its meal, turned towards him and stared him down.

Harry carefully walked around the beast towards its head, glancing to the side he saw all the riding gear hanging on various hooks.

Carefully picking up the reigns he moved towards the horse, slowly extending his arms so that he can slip it over the horse's nose.

As he got closer the horse turned its body towards him and stared harder. Harry was in two minds whether to start backing away or not. He could just tell that Dimitri was watching him; he could feel his eyes on him.

Plucking up the courage Harry quickly moved forward and slipped the reigns onto the beast's nose.

The horse didn't move so Harry quickly tightened the straps.

"That went better than I though it would." smiled Harry as he turned back to the doorway where Dimitri was standing.

He breathed a sigh of relief, which of course meant something was going to go wrong.

And as if on queue….it did.

The horse reared sending Harry to the ground before it galloped out of the stable and out into the yard.

Harry rolled into a sitting position to see Dimitri howling with laughter.

When he finally managed to regain his composure Dimitri was greeted by face of the glaring teen.

"I do apologise Harry, but that was just too funny a sight."

Harry grumpily got to his feet as Dimitri walked over to retrieve his horse. It was one thing to be defeated by a Dark Lord but to be kicked down by a horse was down right degrading.

As Dimitri came back he handed Harry the reigns of his horse, before returning to his own which hadn't moved while he was gone.

"You have to know how to treat horses Harry, they aren't as intelligent as the winged horses, creatures such as Hippogriff's, Owls, in fact all magical creatures have a certain level of intelligence, non-magical creatures don't work the same way."

He moved forward and began to rub the nose of his horse who moved closer to allow him better contact.

"You see, you have to make them see that you are not a threat, with creatures like Hippogriff's all you need to do is bow at them and maintain eye contact and they will either accept you or attack you, once its done you can basically do what you want, within reason of course."

Harry cautiously extended his hand towards his horse, it was going to bite him, he just knew it.

Just as his hand was about to touch the creatures nose, it threw its head back and snorted over his hand.

Pulling his left hand away he sent another glare at the again laughing Dimitri.

"Wonderful, first it knocks me over then it sneezes on me. I'm going back inside, I still have half of next years DADA text book to read, have a good day." he said and began walking away.

"I am sorry Harry, it's just….you can face down Voldemort and a whole host of Death Eaters, but you some face to face with a horse and you are completely perplexed."

"I understand Voldemort;" explained Harry turning back to Dimitri "Kill me, kill Dumbledore, kill the Order, kill Muggle's, kill Muggle-Born's, become immortal and take over the World….he's simple, its just how he goes about it that is complicated, horses are a complete mystery."

"You had better add women to that list Harry," smiled Dimitri "They make no sense either. Come on, give it one more try."

Harry sighed and walked back to his horse, how was it going to humiliate him this time.

"I think we can skip manually saddling up," Dimitri smiled, drawing his wand and levitating the saddles and the rest of the ridding gear out of the stables and, using some clever charms and wand movements, doing up all the straps and buckles.

His memory flashed back to the year before when Tonks was magically packing his trunk and commenting about her mother was skilled enough to fold socks with her magic, whereas she could only make them wiggle.

"You've done this before haven't you?" Harry smiled.

"At the end of a stressful day I like to let of a little steam," he explained, returning the smile "Delphine and our daughters throw fire at the walls, I like to ride, it takes far too long to put all the gear on manually."

When he had finished attaching all the gear to the horses, he swung himself into the saddle of his.

"Mount up." He instructed.

Harry placed his foot in the saddle and swung himself up onto the horses back, it surprised him no end that he didn't go over the top and straight down the other side.

"By the way," added Dimitri "That is Ernie you are ridding and this is his brother Eric."

Harry looked at him sceptically "Eric and Ernie?"

"We might be wizards Harry, but we are known about in the Muggle world as well."

"I know, Fleur told me, I am just surprised that you watch television."

"We don't, but several years back we went to stay in a Muggle hotel and I saw a couple of programs, and seeing as Ernie considers himself a practical joker, as I am sure you know by now, it seemed like an appropriate name and obviously there was only one thing we could call his brother. Anyway, getting back to the point, how to ride."

Harry inwardly gulped.

"Firstly I want you sit like me and take the reigns in you hands and give a very small backwards kick, just to get moving."

In demonstration Eric began to walk forward out of the yard.

Taking a deep breath, he gave Ernie a small kick.

It went surprisingly well, after a slightly fast start Ernie settled into a trot until he came up beside Dimitri when he attempted to slow down but instead came to a dead stop, nearly sending Harry straight over the front of the horse.

Dimitri chuckled.

"Not bad Harry, but not so hard next time, try and keep up."

With that he flashed Harry a smile and took off across the grounds.

For the next few hours he followed Dimitri around the grounds, learning the basics of ridding and by the time two hours were up, he was easily able to keep pace with him.

They then decided to try flying Granian's to see how well Harry handled them, but to Dimitri's great surprise, Harry proved a lot more adept at the art than he was, probably due to his seeker skills and previous experience ridding Thestral's and Hippogriff's.

After an afternoons flying they landed, returned the Pegasi to the stables and began to walk back to the house.

"That was wonderful; I can just imagine how much Fleur and Gabrielle must enjoy that."

"They don't enjoy it as much as you would think actually." replied Dimitri.

"Why on Earth not, that was wonderful."

"For us yes, but they are Veela, which means it isn't as easy for them."

"What do you mean?" asked Harry as they walked towards the doors.

"You have to remember that Veela in their avian forms are essentially giant birds of prey."

"Do you mean the horses are scared of them?"

"Some of them yes, it is worse for Delphine as she is Half-Veela rather than a quarter, she can not even enter the yard, Fleur can ride the Abraxan we have but not the others, the Abraxan is large enough not to consider her a threat, though she still has to be careful, if she transforms then it will throw her off."

"What about Gabrielle?" Harry asked sadly as they seated themselves in there normal places in front of the fireplace.

"Currently she can still ride all the Pegasi; but the normal horses don't let her near them anymore."

"You could try Thestral's, they are carnivorous so may react differently, actually forget I said that, neither of them has seen death so they won't be able to see them."

"Fleur has," replied Dimitri quieter than before "She was with her Grandmother when she died….that was when she was given the hair for her wand….she was only five at the time."

Harry went quiet; he knew how bad it was to see death, he has seen Sirius's death at fifteen, Cedric's at fourteen and Quirrell's at eleven….but five, he couldn't imagine what that was like.

"How did she die?" he asked cautiously.

"Old age, she was one hundred and thirty years old at the time, a good age, it was very peaceful and probably the best way to go, I don't know if Fleur even remembers."

Harry then realised that he had not thought about ever his parents or his inheritance since they had left Gringotts. He still the photo albums in his pocket.

They sat in silence for several minutes pondering lost relatives until the clock on the wall rang out four o'clock.

"The ladies will be back in a few minutes." commented Dimitri "We still have a few hours before sunset, let's go and sit by the pool and cool off."

* * *

Fleur calmly stepped out of the fireplace in the Sitting Room of the Chateau. 

She quickly enters their room for the day, eager to find Harry and to discover the result of the morning's talks.

Normally Harry would have been lying on the bed reading through one of the text books that they carried around in his trunk, he had been alternating between the text books they had bought him for his next two years of schooling (he had of course complained about not paying for them), her text books from her schooling, which gave him extra practice trying to read French and marking the school work of his students. Unusually she found no trace of him.

She quickly searched the adjoining rooms before ending up at the window that overlooked the grounds.

Down by the pool she could see Harry laying in one of the sun loungers next to her father.

Smiling, she quickly changed into her bathing suit (coincidentally the same make of suit that she had worn during the second task, not that she would ever tell anyone that, she had a reputation to uphold), opened the closet, picked up a towel and began to head downstairs towards the pool.

On the way she was joined by her mother who was also dressed in a similar silver bathing suit, obviously about to join the men as well after a hard days business.

As one they walked through the Front Doors and turned towards the swimming pool.

* * *

Harry and Dimitri were sitting beside the pool, both wearing swimming shorts and enjoying the late afternoon sun. 

Dimitri was laid back in his chair with a pair of sunglasses over his eyes, while Harry was sitting up in the chair, one of his parents photo albums open in his lap.

The current picture was of his parents wedding; his parents and Dumbledore were standing at the end of the Hogwarts Great Hall, the photograph showed them kissing each other, before turning to smile at the assembled company.

Harry kept wondering what it would be like to get married, to be standing at the head of the Great Hall, Fleur standing next to him, he couldn't imagine ever wanting to marry anyone else, Dumbledore would conducting the ceremony, dressed in even more flamboyant robes than normal, even if Harry was angry at him for what he had put him through, it just wouldn't be right for anyone else to marry them.

He was awakened from his musings by the gentle warming he felt whenever Fleur approached, as he heard the sounds of bare feet on grass he put the album down.

Looking up, both men saw their better halves walking towards them, dressed only in skin tight silver swimming costumes and each carrying a towel.

Harry for the first time realised how similar the two looked, they could have been sisters, the resemblance was scary.

They were the same height, same hair, same build, same eyes and (although Delphine was at least twenty to twenty five years older) the same appearance of youth.

"Wow." exclaimed Harry.

"Indeed." smiled Dimitri raising the sunglasses off his face as the pair approached. They looked marvellous, the evening sun behind them giving them an almost ethereal glow.

"And pray tell us, what you two are staring at?" smiled Delphine reaching the edge of the pool and placing her hands on her hips, her daughter mirroring her movements.

"The visions of beauty before us." replied Harry poetically, earning smiles from the ladies.

"He can be so sweet can't he." smiled Fleur, removing her hands from her hips and sitting down in Harry's lap, ensuring to wriggle her hips as she got comfortable, earning her a low moan from Harry.

She settled across him and pecked him on the cheek before spotting the ring on his right hand.

"Arry...is that you Family Ring?"

"Yes, we visited the Accounting Department while we were there and they granted me ownership of my family vaults." he slipped the ring of his finger and handed it to Fleur to look at.

"How unusual," she commented as she turned it over between her fingers before handing it back "I wonder what the wings and eyes are for."

"Who knows," replied Harry shrugging whilst placing the ring back on his finger "I did face the dragon at the tournament of course but that did not have sapphire eyes or such streamlined wings."

"And that's not all he got." grinned Dimitri.

"What else did he receive?" asked Delphine curiously from her spot on Dimitri's lap.

"Apart from a bank balance as large as our own, or at least it will be when it has all been claimed back from the British Ministry, he also got two houses, over one hundred tenants, lots of shares, a couple of thousand acres of land, a hereditary Knighthood, a Thanage and a Viscountcy."

Both the women just sat there stunned, not quite sure if they had heard right.

"Let me get this straight," began Delphine taking a breath "He owns two properties with land and tenants, a large bank balance, not including the value of the shares and on top of all that he's a Knight, a Thane and a Viscount."

"Yes, to be precise he is Sir Harry James Evans, Thane Harry James Potter and Viscount Gryffindor." smiled Dimitri; he was loving every minute of showing of his future son in law.

Fleur turned to Harry.

"I am mated to a Viscount with powerful ancestry….lucky me." she grinned.

"Oh no, I'm the lucky one." corrected Harry, earning him a passionate kiss.

After several minutes they separated and Fleur's eyes fell on the album beside them, picking it up she examined the open picture.

"Are these you parents?" she asked turning the page to see the wedding party on the Hogwarts steps.

"Yes." He replied smiling.

"You look so much like your father Harry," she smiled "Except…."

"I know, except my eyes, I have my mother's eyes." he interjected smiling.

"No," said Fleur smirking "I was actually going to say except for your scar….you can't see their eyes in this picture."

"Oh….ok, I feel stupid." blushed Harry causing Fleur to giggle before settling further into his chest while examining the picture.

"I recognise quite a few members of the Order, but who is this man Arry?" she pointed to a face.

Leaning in Harry examined the picture before his smile faded.

"Peter Pettigrew." he answered quietly.

"Oh Arry, I'm so sorry," she replied realising what her curiosity had just done "I didn't mean to…."

"Its fine." he said, attempting to put a smile back on his face which Fleur could tell was fake; he had been staying with them for the temporal equivalent of forty days now and she could tell when he was just doing something to make her feel better.

They sat quietly for several minutes, both women sitting in the laps of their respective partners until Delphine stood and moved to the pool.

"Anyone for a race?" she asked before jumping backwards into the water.

Dimitri shook his head in amusement before getting up and diving in himself.

Fleur giggled before literally pulling Harry out of his seat sending both of them tumbling into the pool, much to the amusement of the others.

They spent a couple of hours swimming around, generally relaxing and having fun, which the elder Delacour's were surprisingly good at.

Dimitri won most of the races, with Fleur and her mother coming close behind except when they conspired together to beat him. Harry made a mental note to practice swimming while he was in residence; he really needed to improve his fitness.

About three hours of fun and joviality, just as they were about to come in, one of the servants brought out a silver tray with a letter on it.

Dimitri took it and opened it, noting the seal of Gringotts bank as he did so.

The others all watched nervously as he read the letter.

"The Goblin Parliament….has agreed to join us."


	29. CH29 Apparition And Animagus Transform

Chapter 29 – Apparition And Animagus Transformation

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:4th August 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:Morning_

Two normal days later Fleur and Harry are having their day off, they had decided it might be nice to try to learn some fun and useful magic rather than just useful.

They were standing in the middle of a requirements room set up as a normal training room, except this time it had a few chairs and seats as well as a couple of coloured circles drawn on the floor.

Harry and Fleur were standing side by side in front of a pair of circles while Delphine (who had joined them for this repeat) sat in a nearby chair.

"Are you ready Harry?" she asked.

"Yes….I think so." he said uncertainly.

Delphine smiled and chuckled lightly "Maybe you should watch Fleur do it once more before you try."

"Yes, I think that would be a good idea." he smiled weakly.

Fleur smiled before standing straight and Disapparating with a pop, only to reappear a fraction of a second later in the circle.

"See Arry, its easy."

"So you keep saying." he replied uncertainly as she reappeared next to him.

"Just remember Harry, you need to concentrate on the circle," reminded Delphine "Imagine yourself standing there and then push your magic into that thought, you don't have to worry about reappearing in China or something similar as the wards prevent anyone from Apparating or Disapparating into or out of the Chateau, but you can still Apparate between places in this room."

"Come on Arry, you can do it." smiled Fleur.

He gulped before turning towards the circle and closing his eyes. He imagined himself standing in the circle, imagined seeing the room from that position, seeing the ladies from there, focusing on the image he tried to focus as much of his magic as possible on his goal.

He felt a pull begin to exert itself on his body, he felt like he was being pulled, compressed, squeezed into a space far too small for his body, just as he though he would burst he felt a jerk as he over balanced and fell on his back with a thud.

As he muttered his annoyance at his own stupidity he heard clapping from the other end of the room.

"Well done Arry." cried Fleur before he felt her arms wrap around him "You did it."

"I did?" he asked.

"You did." replied Delphine as she came around in front of him, smiling.

"First time." agreed Fleur happily, as she stood and extended a hand towards him.

"Wasn't very pleasAAAHHH" Harry cried as he began to get up only to find that he couldn't lift his feet, sending him tumbling back to the ground and pulling Fleur down on top of him.

"Sorry." he groaned up at Fleur.

"Don't worry." she chuckled, getting back up.

Looking at his feet Harry discovered that he had splinched the bottom half centimetre of each of his shoes with the floor.

"Well, maybe I didn't do it after all." sighed Harry as he started undoing his laces.

"You still did better than most," smiled Fleur before looking to the floor "On my first attempt I splinched half the length of my hair off."

"I thought it looked rather nice." smiled Delphine, before drawing her wand and pointed them at Harry's now empty shoes "What happened just now was that you imagined yourself at your actual height rather than your height when you include shoes, this time Harry try to imagine yourself as being a centimetre or two taller, that way you will not splinch your shoes."

Harry nodded as he picked up his now unsplinched shoes and put them back on.

Turning around he looked at the other circle.

He again imagined himself standing in the circle, seeing the room from that position, though a little bit higher than before, he pushed all his focus into the image forcing his magic on his target.

He felt a pull again, the compression, the tightness, seconds before he would have burst he felt the jerk and a drop as he landed on the floor.

He heard anther hand clap from behind him as Fleur hugged him again.

"Well done Arry, that was a lot better."

"Agreed," smiled Delphine "Most people would have splinched themselves again, you seem to possess a particular talent for controlling your magic."

"I appeared in the air." Harry stated.

"Yes but the fact that you were able to will make yourself Apparate higher that easily shows a particular talent for magical control, did it feel easier this time?"

"Yes, it did, I didn't feel like I was getting squeezed as much."

"I thought so," nodded Delphine "The Disapparation pop wasn't so loud this time."

"Just out of interest," he began "What actually causes the pop?"

"When you Disapparate the air moves quickly to fill the gap causing the popping sound." explained Delphine "More skilled wizards can Apparate with less of a pop as they find it easier to push themselves into the new position."

"I'm not sure I understand?" commented Harry.

"It's like….its like the difference between forcing a door open with your shoulder and simply opening it using the handle. Most people have to force all their magic into the move and simply stumble through by sure force, while more competent wizards can pass through smoothly, making the move a fraction of a second more gradual therefore giving the air a chance to fill the space more smoothly."

"Doesn't that mean it would take longer to Apparate though?"

"Not really, the difference is unnoticeable but it simply means that if we were both to Apparate now, we would both arrive at the same time, but my experience with Apparating would mean I could begin to move slightly earlier, not to mention quieter, though judging from how well you did this time, only slightly."

Harry nodded his understanding

"Again?" he asked.

"Again." replied the women.

* * *

One hour later Harry had become quiet proficient at Apparating, the women had taken to testing him by making flashes of light appear on the floor randomly and seeing how fast Harry could move between them. He had got to the level now that he could Apparate across the breadth of the room with only a slight pop.

After an hour and a half, Harry literally collapsed to the floor from exhaustion; Apparation was draining if done frequently or over large distances and he must have Apparated dozens and dozens of times, possibly more and he was completely shattered.

"Enough….no more….I'm knackered." He panted rolling onto his back; he had just hit a personnel best of twenty two Apparation's a minute.

"Well done Arry." smiled Fleur as she moved to his side and turned him over so that his head was resting in her lap "You did wonderfully."

"Indeed." smiled Delphine coming into view in front of him "I think you need to do something more fun."

"Fun….I'll be amazed if I can even get up." he panted.

Delphine smiled before withdrawing a potions tube from her robe.

"Here, Pepper-Up Potion, that should get you back on your feet, and trust me, you will want to be on your feet for what I have planned."

"What?" he asked after downing the liquid in one gulp.

"You will see." she smiled extending a hand and helping him to his feet while they waited for the potion to take affect.

Drawing her wand she began to chant in Latin, waving her wand around him before pointing off to the side as a silver ghostly image emerged from her wand.

It wound together to form a coherent picture.

A pair of hind legs, front legs, small tail, long hairy neck, pointed face and a pair of large antlers.

"A stag?" he asked confused.

"Harry, may I present to you, your Animagus form."

Harry looked at her then back to the image.

"Really, I'm a stag to."

"To?" asked Delphine.

"Arry's dad had a stag Animagus form." explained Fleur.

"I don't remember seeing his name on the register."

"He was an illegal Animagus, as was Sirius and Peter Pettigrew, they learned so they could stay with Remus during his change."

Delphine nodded at the explanation.

"I though you could choose what you wanted to be." said Harry as he walked around the image.

"You can but everyone has a latent form that would be easiest to transform into," explained Delphine "Most wizards have trouble becoming Animagus as it is a lot harder to become a creature that you are not attuned to, that spell I used is not very well known, which is why more people don't try."

"It doesn't look the same as my dads though," commented Harry "The antlers and body look different."

"He was probably a different species of deer; you appear to be a large red deer stag."

"Very impressive." smiled Fleur as she walked around to the other side of the image.

"What's you form?" asked Harry out of curiosity.

She looked up at him and smiled.

"I don't have one."

"But I thought everyone had a…."

"Not Veela Arry." interrupted Fleur "You can only have one alternative form and as a Veela I already have one….I am part bird, all Veela are part bird we don't get the choice as you do."

Harry felt the need to comfort her, even though she didn't seem upset by this limitation set by her lineage

He gave her a comforting hug as Delphine carried on where Fleur had left off.

"As natural shape shifters ourselves Harry, we can help you learn to become an Animagus significantly faster than ay wizard could, especially as you are trying to become your natural form, I predict you should be able to fully transform and hold the transformation in a matter of weeks."

Harry's eyes bulged as she said this, it had taken the Marauders years to learn how to transform, and the prospect of possibly being able to by the time he returned to school was overwhelming.

He could imagine Ron and Hermione's faces when he would transform for them for the first time. Ron would probably say something along the lines of 'Bloody hell', while Hermione would bombard him with questions, one of which was bound to be 'are you registered'.

As the thought came to mind Harry turned to ask the question.

"Is there any way I could register without letting people know?"

Delphine sent a smile at him before answering.

"The law states that Animagus have to be registered with the Ministry, it doesn't say which one though?"

Harry grinned, some Wizarding laws were so full of holes you could fly a broom through them.

"How do I begin?"


	30. CH30 Wand Points And Portals

Chapter 30 – Wand Points And Portals

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:10th August 2001 AD_

_Country:France – Pic Du Thaume_

_Location:Beauxbatons Academy Of Magic_

_Time:Morning_

"Welcome to your first DAA lesson," began Harry "Today I want to judge your skills at duelling so I will ask each of you to come up onto the platform in turn and duel me."

This would be Harry's hardest day so far, he was teaching the seventh years duelling and unlike the previous flying instructor their DAA teacher had apparently been quite competent.

"You can use any type of magic you like to attempt to defeat me, as long as it is legal and not restricted and I will award points for style or originality, I will not deduct points for anything you do during the duel unless you break the rule I just stated."

He swung his eyes over the class, examining them closely; they were all wearing transfigured trousers and had their wands at the ready.

Several of them looked confident, others looked very nervous.

He decided to work through the nervous ones first.

"You." he said pointing to a girl who was doing her best to hide in Violette's shadow.

The duel did not last long; even when Harry did is best to allow her to get the upper hand he still defeated her in under twenty seconds, he could have done it with one curse, hell even Gabrielle could have beaten her if she had been trying.

He slowly worked his way through the class, the more confident and skilled students provided a bit more of a challenge, Violette and the other three with similar sounding names were all pretty good and lasted at least thirty seconds and up to and over a minute with him in full duelling mode.

Monique was also very good lasting even longer; he was beginning to wonder if she was this good in all her subjects, probably why she was made Head Girl.

There was one girl he had spotted who he left deliberately to last, she was one of the confident ones and appeared to be a strategic thinker, he had watched her study each match, she had been sizing him up since the beginning, she had a look of confidence about her, as if she knew with certainty that she was going to win, and Harry was pretty sure he new why, there was one other reason why he had left her to last, she had one advantage over him that the rest did not.

She was Veela.

That hair was unique; she definitely had Veela blood in her veins.

She had introduced herself as Colleen when he had asked for her name and she seemed as forward and as certain as anyone conceivably could be.

As she stepped up onto the platform he could see the training that she had had, her stance was different, it was similar to that which Fleur had assumed when they had duelled.

She fired of her first spell before he even had a chance to straighten up from his bow; he dodged sideways and fired an identical spell back at her, which she easily blocked with a shield.

They exchanged fire very rapidly for at least thirty seconds before Harry felt her becoming more attractive.

He had hoped she would do this, it meant that she had though of magic besides her wand.

Harry cast a quick spell that he had coincidentally learned from his own Veela mate, conjuring ice at her feet, causing her to slip over and loose her concentration preventing her from fully releasing her powers.

"Enough." he called, ending the match.

He walked over to her and gave her a hand up; she reluctantly accepted it, looking extremely annoyed that he had stopped the match before she had had the chance to defeat him.

"Well done," he congratulated before turning to the class "Colleen did exactly what I though she would try and do and used all her magic to try to win, for those of you who did not notice or did not realise I will explain in a minute but first I would like to ask," he said turning back to Colleen "What percentage Veela are you?"

She took a step back when he asked and instinctively reached for her wand.

"How did you know?" she asked warily.

"Your hair colour, the only time you see that colour hair on someone young is when they have Veela blood in their veins."

She nodded before replying with a sly smile "I'm half and half, my mother is a Veela."

He nodded turning back to the group.

"What Colleen did was to attempt to use her Veela powers to distract me as it would on any male, if you remember at the beginning I specifically said that any magic could be used and that is exactly what she attempted to do, it was only my fore knowledge of the tactic that enabled me to evade it, three merits for a good use of magic and available knowledge."

The school bell sounded signifying the end of class.

"Well done everyone, I will see you all next week."

They all said goodbye, changed their skirts back and filed out of the room.

Harry straightened his clothes and was about to leave when Madam Maxime appeared in the doorway.

"May I enter Daniel?" she asked.

"It's your school Olympe," he smiled "You can go anywhere you want."

She smiled and crossed the fresh hold as he collected his robe.

"How has your first week been?"

"Good….pretty good." he replied as he took a seat on the side of the duelling platform and indicated for her to do the same.

"What about trouble with the girls?" she asked with a slight smile.

"No trouble as of yet," he replied feeling suddenly nervous "Though I am sure that five or six of them have set their eyes on me."

"Which ones?" she asked curiously.

"Firstly Monique, though despite the fact that she is Head Girl I don't think she has the confidence to try anything and is too worried about the results. Violette and her three friends have been sending me not so subtle hints every time I pass them and it doesn't help that they travel as a pack all the time, but the only one I am worried about is Colleen."

"Why Colleen?" she asked smirking.

"She is part Veela and so she has power to influence me where the others do not, and from seeing how confident she is I get the feeling that she is likely to be very direct. For lack of a better description I would have to call her a predator."

"You really are quite remarkable Daniel." She smiled "That was probably the best character analysis I have ever heard of those girls. Ever since they first began their education here, the 'Nets' in particular always seem to be discussing ways of seducing men."

"The what sorry?" he asked.

"The 'Nets', that's what those four are called, I thought it ironic when they arrived that the only four girls with similar sounding names would turn out to be so similar."

Harry nodded as he donned his robe.

"I just wonder how long it will be before one of them tries something….I had better be careful, we don't want a scandal on ourARGH!"

Harry cried out in pain as his scar erupted in pain sending him tumbling to the ground.

"Daniel? Arry!" Olympe shouted in panic, dropping to his side.

Harry rolled over the floor, crying out in pain.

FLASH

A portal of blue light.

FLASH

Two girl's on a Tower.

FLASH

One runs to the edge.

FLASH

Falling...falling.

FLASH

A black flame streaking across the sky.

FLASH

A man, a look of determination and fear on his face.

FLASH

He turns into a ball of energy.

FLASH

The man and the woman collide with the portal.

FLASH

Hogwarts.

FLASH

The Great Hall, a flash of blue light.

FLASH

The portal opens.

FLASH

Olympe leaning over him

_Oh Merlin that hurts. Couldn't it have waited, at least until school starts? _

"ARRY!" she shouted, shaking him.

"I'm ok. I'm ok," he lied, jumping to his feet or more appropriately getting to his feet and falling over in rapid succession.

Clambering to his feet, he made his way to the door and down the corridor, Madam Maxime hot on his heels.

"Daniel where are you going, what is wrong?" she asked running behind him

"I have to get to Hogwarts now, something's happening….two people, a portal." He panted as he ran through the corridors, casting a summoning charm as he went.

"Daniel, take this!" yelled Olympe behind him bringing him to a halt.

She handed his a quill.

"A portkey, it will take you there and bring you back." she explained replacing her wand "You go, I will tell Fleur."

"Don't let her follow me!," he shouted looking grateful as he took off again "What ever you do, don't let her follow me."

"I will return." she heard him yell as he passed around the corner nearly sending a couple of students flying.

He ran for several more meters until he saw his Dragon flying towards him, he quickly transfigured it to look like an old Cleansweep (as Umbridge still had his Firebolt) before hitting the portkey_  
_

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:10th August 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Dumbledore's Office_

_Time:Morning_

Professor's Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape were sitting in Dumbledore's Office discussing plans for the next year.

"Well if that is all, thank you both, I think our choice will work out well during the course of the next year."

"I still think this is a bad idea Headmaster." protested Snape as he stood and moved towards the door.

"I am aware of your objections Severus but it is hard enough to find A Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher as it is without…."

An alarm sounded.

"Incoming portkey, its being redirected here." said Dumbledore drawing his wand and aiming it at the centre of the room, the other two mirrored him.

There was a flash as the portkey arrived and a whoosh as a broom went hurtling straight out of the room, evaded the three spells aimed at the new arrival and headed down the spiral stairs.

McGonagall blinked twice.

"Was that….was that Harry?" she asked.

"It certainly looked like him." nodded Dumbledore as he ran out from behind his desk and headed out after the boy, the others trailing behind him.

* * *

Harry was stopping for nothing he could hear the amplified voices of Dumbledore and Snape telling him to stop but he ignored them, he had to get to the Great Hall before that portal closed.

He hurtled down two more flights of stairs, dodging around a girl with a mane of brown hair.

Wait a minute.

Circling back very quickly he flew back to his friend.

"Hermione what are you, nether mind."

He almost yanked her onto the broom before she had even had the chance to say his name, leaving her books scattered over the corridor.

"HARRY?" she screamed as they hurtled around a very sharp corner before hurtling through the open doors of the hall.

They scarred the life out of Ron who had his eyes closed, about to take a massive bite out of a sandwich when the pair of them came hurtling to a stop next to him.

"Bloody hell!" he exclaimed "Harry, where did you come from?"

"No time," he said, jumping of his broom and moving to the centre of the room to look at the ceiling, leaving a very frazzled and scared Hermione sitting frozen on the broom, until Ron came and lifted her off it "A portal is going to appear any second."

It was just then that the Professors charged into the room.

"Potter," sneered Snape "What the hell do you think you are doing, I demand to know where you have been all summer and…."

"Oh belt up Snivellus!" shouted Harry.

"Harry." Chastised Hermione and Dumbledore simultaneously, while Ron just gaped and Snape started spluttering.

"We don't have time for politeness; a portal is going to open there any second." he said pointing to the sealing.

On cue, the portal opened. Through it a metal tower could be seen as well as a girl falling towards them, a roar of black flame crackled across the back of the image and a man appeared, both people hit the portal and began to convulse with pain.

"We have to get them out before it closes!" Harry yelled.

Dumbledore drew his wand. "Accio." nothing happened.

"All together," Harry urged as he pointed his wand.

"ACCIO!"

The bodies fell towards the ground. Ron gasping in pain as he caught her; Harry attempted to catch the man but couldn't support his weight and collapsed to the floor before quickly rolling out from under him.

The portal closed, no one seeing the ghostly outline of the bodies that remained where they had been caught in the portal.

He fell to the floor unconscious. All eyes were on the pair except for Snape's whose eyes were still levelled at Harry.

Harry caught the flicker of movement as Snape brought his wand to bear.

Harry jumped onto the broom and flew at top speed out of the castle and onto the grounds.

"Harry!" called Hermione.

"Come back here Potter!" bellowed Snape.

"Dumbledore?"

The last voice came from the man on the floor, before his eyes rolled back and he collapsed.


	31. CH31 Hogwarts

Chapter 31 – Hogwarts?

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:10th August 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – The Hospital Wing_

_Time:Morning_

The Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey, Professors Dumbledore, Snape and McGonagall were present. Hermione had gone to find Harry, while the new arrivals and Ron were in hospital bed; Ron had managed to sprain his wrist when he had caught the woman.

"Do you have any idea who they are, Albus?" McGonagall asked.

Dumbledore seemed oblivious to her question as he stared at the man on the bed.

He was around six foot maybe a little taller, wearing black trousers, shirt and tie as well as a long black coat. His clothes were blood-stained and torn. He was also sporting numerous cuts, scratches and bite marks. None of those present ever wanted to meet the creature that could inflict those injuries.

When you compared the man to the woman, they appeared to be exact opposites. She had no cuts and scratches, though she was sporting multiple bruises, which were healing nicely thanks to Madam Pomfrey, but whereas the man had a sense of power to him and looked like he meant business even when unconscious; the woman possessed a similar sense of strength but looked completely harmless.

It occurred to Dumbledore as he studied them that she was in pyjamas and healing whereas the man was still in his clothes and his injuries were as they were when he was brought in.

"Professor?" someone questioned before he had the chance to ask about the man's attire.

Dumbledore realised he had let his mind wander.

"I do not know the girl, but if he is who I think he is this will be a fascinating encounter….I have not seen him in a very long time."

"How long do you mean by a long time Albus?" questioned McGonagall "He can't be more than twenty….twenty five at the most."

"I met him in 1865…and he doesn't seem to have aged a day since." Dumbledore commented, removing his eyes from the man for the first time.

"That's impossible Headmaster. He would have to be over one hundred and sixty years old," said Snape. "Minerva is right. He can not be more than twenty five at the most, probably closer to twenty."

"Well I have no idea how old he is," Madam Pomfrey informed them. "But he's not responding to any of the treatments and even stranger, I couldn't remove his garments to treat his injuries….magically or by hand. It's.…it's as if they were glued to him."

"Curious," commented the Headmaster.

"What about the girl?" enquired Snape.

"She is responding," Madam Pomfrey explained. "And should be awake any minute…."

The woman groaned.

"…now," Madam Pomfrey said with a certain degree of satisfaction as she went over to examine the girl.

* * *

Buffy regained consciousness.

_What the, where the hell am I? _

_I should be dead. This can't be Heaven._

The first thing she discovered was that she had a splitting headache. She let out a groan and pushed her palm against her forehead.

Looking around, an odd collection of people came into focus, some of whom did not look particularly pleasant.

She backed up against the end of her bed.

"Easy, easy," a woman wearing what appeared to be a nurses uniform said calmingly.

_Think, remain calm._

"Who? What? Where?" she blurted out as she spectacularly leaped out of bed and collapsed to the floor, discovering in the process that she was an awful lot more tired than she thought.

Buffy reversed up onto the bed next to hers and backed up right onto Ron, though she remained ignorant of that last fact.

_Oh well done. What happened to remaining calm?_

_Stop telling me what to do._

_I'm you; I'm allowed to._

_Then why am I talking to myself?_

_I don't know. Don't you?_

_If you don't know, how should I? _

_You're me, remember?_

_I know that, you half wit._

_That means you're a half wit as well._

_Oh shut up._

"It's ok. It's ok. No one is going to hurt you," said a fairly old woman with a weird accent, moving to her side.

_Well at least they speak English. She doesn't look too dangerous._

_Ok this time remain calm. Speak normally._

"Where in the name of all that's Hellmouthy am I?"

_Good work, _Her head mocked _Well done._

_I thought I told you to shut up._

"You are at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," a very old man with more than a passing resemblance to Santa on a diet answered.

_School of what?_

"I am Professor Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts; may we ask who you are?"

_My god this man looks like he's a hundred and fifty years old._

_He makes Giles look young._

"Buffy…Buffy Summers," she said, calming down and shifted back until she was sitting straight up against one of the bed post. She began shifting about in an attempt to get comfortable as the bed was not that flat.

Or at least what she thought was the bed wasn't flat as it was actually Ron's lap, and Ron was beginning to look increasingly uncomfortable. It's not every day you end up with a beautiful girl in Gryffindor pyjamas wriggling in your lap.

He just wished it was Hermione doing it instead….without the pyjamas.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Miss Summers" Dumbledore was trying hard to hold back his smile. He wasn't sure what was funnier, Ron's face pleading for him to do something or Miss Summer's ignorance of the situation she was causing.

He turned to continue the introductions receiving a scowl from Ron.

"This is Professor McGonagall, the Deputy Head Mistress, Head of Gryffindor House and Transfiguration Teacher."

"Hi," Buffy greeted.

_Yeah, she looks friendly, if not a bit strict, weird accent though._

"Hello, Miss Summers."

"Professor Snape, Head of Slytherin House and Potions Master." Snape nodded slightly.

_Jesus, when did this guy last have a wash? That hair looks like it's got enough grease to cook for the entire western world._

"Madam Pomfrey," Dumbledore continued. "The School Nurse."

"Pleasure," Madam Pomfrey greeted.

"And the young man you are sitting on." Dumbledore was really trying hard not to smile, as was Professor McGonagall who had just noticed Ron's plight. "Is Ronald Weasley, one of the most skilled students…."

Snape snorted.

"…at this school," Dumbledore finished, sending Snape a look.

_Is this guy seeing people? I don't think this kid, wherever he AAHHHH_

Buffy jumped when the bed tapped her on the shoulder.

_AH...where did he come from?_

In the space were she had been sitting was a fairly tall boy with scruffy red hair and an uncomfortable and embarrassed look on his face.

"Sorry," she apologized.

"No problem," Ron reassured her, shifting uncomfortably, his voice slightly higher than usual.

_Well he seems friendly enough. I'll have to watch where I sit though._

"Where did you say I was again?" she asked, turning back to Dumbledore.

"Hogwarts, it's a school where we train young witches and wizards."

_Oh, like Willow and Tara, well that's ok._

"Witches, what you mean like Wicca's?"

"Wicca's?" Professor McGonagall asked surprised. "Wiccan magic has been lost for centuries."

_You wanna bet?_

"Oh, what type of magic do you do then?" Buffy continued, deciding not to mention the fact that she had seen Wiccan magic in the last twenty four hours.

"Wand Magic," Ron answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, he withdrew his wand and showing it to her.

_Wand, he's serious, they really use wands._

"Oh," she said taking the wand and turning it over in her fingers before handing it back.

_Willow's gonna love this._

"I'm sorry to interrupt the history lesson, but could we get back to the point," Snape said, sounding put out.

_Geez chill out Cranky Pants._

"And that would be?" Buffy countered, annoyed by his uptight attitude.

Snape glared at her and she returned it.

_What's up with this guy? Take the stake out of your ass why don't you._

Dumbledore smiled. Not many can meet Severus Snape's stare.

"Why you are here." said Snape, exasperated.

"Severus, our young friend has just fallen through a portal. Give her a chance to get her bearings…and a chance for her friend to awaken," Dumbledore said attempting to calm the situation before one even arose.

_Huh?_

"Friend?" Buffy asked, confused.

Dumbledore gestured to a bed with a very familiar looking man in it.

_Oh my god._

"Adam!" she shouted in shock, jumping onto his bed.

_Please by alright, please be alright. Tara is going to kill me if you are hurt._

"Adam…ADAM…WAKE UP!"

He stirred, groaning.

"BUFFY," said Adam in an attempt to stop her shouting. "I am not deaf, as you well know. I am, however, suffering a serious power drain and my head feels like the world has just rolled over it." he explained, opening his eyes.

He sat up slowly and immediately regretted it when his head started pounding even more than it had been.

"I hate portals," he groaned, moving a hand to his head. He then scanned the room until his gaze fell on Dumbledore.

"Brian….by the Gods, I haven't seen you in decades. How have you…" he stopped, studying the surroundings before turned back to Dumbledore.

"Hogwarts," Adam said with amused raised eyebrows. "You've been made Headmaster of Hogwarts."

He chuckled lightly, regretting it immediately he leaned forward and clutched his head, wobbling a bit. Buffy put an arm around him to stabilize him. Adam nodded his thanks, before returning his gaze to Dumbledore.

"Well I knew you would be great some day, and if memory serves you owe me fifty Galleons."

Buffy looked to Dumbledore, who also looked confused.

_Gal what?_

"The leaky Cauldron….9th of August 1868.…I bet you that you would hold a position of authority inside one hundred and twenty years." Comprehension dawned on the headmaster's face and he chuckled.

Adam smiled again and looked to Buffy.

"Are you ok?"

_Oh yeah, I'm just dandy. I am in a strange place, full of witches and wizards who use wands and you've just bumped into someone you haven't seen in over a hundred years...why wouldn't I be alright?_

"Right as rain. How did you end up in the portal with me anyway?" she questioned.

"He flew across the sky as a ball of energy leaving a black flame behind him!" said a voice, from what it sounded like it was magnified by a megaphone.

Buffy started spinning around attempting to find the source of the voice. Adam on the other hand simply closed his eyes and began focusing.

"Harry," called the Headmaster "Please come out, we promise not to attack you."

Snape grumbled slightly.

"Only if you swear not to ask me about the events of this summer!" came the reply.

Dumbledore thought for a second before replying.

"I swear."

"Snape as well!"

The Headmaster turned to Snape and gave him a forceful look.

"I….swear." grumbled the Potions Master.

The sound of a broom could be heard before Harry flew into the room through the open door, landing at the end of the beds.

"Good morning Professor, how have you been?" Harry said smiling sweetly at Professor McGonagall.

"Well, thank you Potter," answered McGonagall "Yourself?"

"Not bad, been better" Harry smiled before turning to the people in the beds, it did not go unnoticed that Harry completely ignored Dumbledore and Snape in his greetings.

"Hey Ron, have you asked Hermione out yet?" he smirked.

Ron turned a very deep shade of red.

"I'll take that as a no."

Harry then turned to the new comers.

The strange man looked at Harry intently; as if recognising something. Harry had to turn away under his intense gaze.

"You seem familiar, have we met?" he asked softening his gaze.

"I don't think so," said Harry bringing his eyes back up to look at him "I saw you in a vision which is the only reason I am back here before school starts again."

"My name is Adam," he introduced "And this is Buffy Summers."

"Hi." The girl said quietly.

"I'm Harry, Harry Potter."

"Potter?" Adam asked, turning to Dumbledore. "Harry James Potter…James and Lily's son?" he turned back to Harry who nodded; obviously not surprised that someone else knew who he was. "Well….you've certainly shot up, I haven't seen you in over fifteen years….I was sorry to hear about your parents, Harry. They were good friends."

"You….knew them?" Harry asked.

"Yes," he said sadly. "This is not the first time I have come to this dimension since seeing your Headmaster. The last time I stumbled in half dead. Your parents took me in and cared for me as best they could until I was able enough to leave. If it wasn't for them and their friend Sirius, I wouldn't have survived," he said, pausing.

Adam saw Harry flinch at Sirius's name, but decided not to comment on it.

He stood, a lot steadier than he had been mere minutes earlier.

"Brian.…we need to talk in private. Could we go to your office?"

"Of course as long as Madam Pomfrey has discharged you?"

"Well there is nothing I could do for him. His injuries have healed by themselves and Miss Summers is also fine, so I see no reason why not."

"Excellent." Dumbledore smiled, turning to face Harry's bed. "Harry, could you take care of Miss Summers, maybe giving her a tour of the school and grounds, familiarise her with our institution."

Harry just nodded his response.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Snape about to shout at him for being rude but McGonagall silenced him with a look.

They started to walk towards the door when Adam stopped and looked over his shoulder.

"Buffy," he said. "You can trust these people. You don't need to keep secrets." he turned back to Dumbledore and the pair walked out the door.

The other teachers left, Snape giving Harry a glare as he went leaving only Buffy, Ron and Harry sitting quietly.

"Harry," began Ron "Where have you…."

"Not now Ron," he interrupted "I promise I will tell you everything when school starts, for now I suggest you go and find Hermione."

Ron nodded, slightly annoyed at his friends secretive attitude, climbing out of bed he walked out of the door leaving only Harry and Buffy.

"Shall we," he said, giving her a hand up. They got halfway to the door when Buffy stopped.

"What's wrong?" he asked

"I should probably get dressed first," she replied.

Looking down, Harry realised she was still in her Gryffindor pyjamas.

"That would probably be a good idea."


	32. CH32 Who Are You

Chapter 32 – Who Are You?

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:10th August 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Dumbledore's Office_

_Time:Morning_

"How have you been, Brian?"

"The same as ever given the circumstances. It has been over a century since someone called me by that name." Dumbledore smiled, sitting and gesturing Adam towards the other chair. "Tea?"

"Please. Can I assume the circumstances you spoke of are linked to a certain dark wizard formerly known as Tom Marvolo Riddle?" Adam asked, sitting.

A house elf appeared with a tea set which he set down on Dumbledore's desk.

"Thank you, Dobby."

"It's a pleasure, Professor Dumbledore, Sir."

The elf vanished with a bow and a pop. Dumbledore turned back to Adam.

"Not entirely but you are correct, Tom has risen again and is gathering followers, but that is not the only circumstance, Mr Potter went missing at the beginning of this summer and today has been the first time anyone has seen him…. Added to that there is the fact that someone I last saw over one hundred and thirty years ago appeared at my school and doesn't seem to have aged a day." Dumbledore added poignantly though not angrily as he made and sat back with his tea.

"I do owe you an explanation." Adam agreed as the last lump of sugar dropped itself into his tea before the liquid began to stir itself.

"The obvious question is who or perhaps what are you?"

Adam turned his head to the balcony above. There was the noise of books shuffling against each other before a book flew over the balcony towards them and landed very gently on the desk in front of Dumbledore. The title flashed:

_The Guardian Of Light: Myth & Legend_

Dumbledore looked up quickly, the shock evident on his face. It was very rare for the Headmaster to be shocked and even when he was he never showed it as much as his face did at this moment.

"You're The Guardian? I thought you were a myth."

"That was the idea, old friend." he took a sip of tea. "When that book was written, I had just saved the author's life. I try never to explain who I am to the people that I rescue; I usually just tell them that I am 'Just a Friend' or some other such statement which is equally as un-descriptive….if I say anything at all. The author was cleverer than most. He researched for years finding out about others who had encountered me, piecing together all the peaces of written evidence until he finally had enough evidence to prove his theory.…that I was real."

Dumbledore observed that Adam was obviously pleased at the lengths the man had gone to in order to prove his point.

"So he wrote that book, as he was an innocent and very determined. I didn't want to spoil all his hard work. That book was very popular when it came out. But after he died, I worked a small piece of magic that slowly manipulated the words and phrasing so that the entire theory sounded a lot less plausible. Over time the books were lost and buried deep in the back of libraries, the magic slowly erasing them from existence, until only a few remained in the hands of those who had met me or already knew of my existence."

He paused to take another sip of tea.

"Luckily, like in this case, the magic was clever enough to make the book so indecisive that no one really believed its contents. Originally that book proved beyond a doubt that I existed. It now gives a balanced and slightly surreal argument as to whether I exist or not."

He waved his free hand over the book and it glowed for a second. The book got slightly thicker and the cover design changed slightly.

"That is now exactly as the original was, no tricks, no magic, nothing. Other than that copy, there is really no other that proves my existence." he paused to think and refill his cup. "Well, that's not technically true. There is one book, but I don't have it in my possession any more." Dumbledore noticed that the last line was said with a certain amount of concern.

"That book will answer most of your questions. Are there any others?" he asked and refilled his cup.

"Yes. Who is the young lady and how did you come to be here?"

"Those questions can be answered when everyone is gathered. Otherwise I will have to repeat myself, which is something I prefer not to do. I would suggest that we all meet, including Harry and his friends, after lunch and I'll bet you a galleon that Miss Granger has read about me and her first words will be 'I've heard about him'."

Dumbledore chuckled. "No bet….How do you know about Harry's friends?"

Adam smiled. "You know better than to ask questions like that old friend."

Dumbledore returned the smile and nodded, Adam always had a knack of knowing things without being told them.

"After lunch then."

"I do have one question if I may?" asked Adam "Why did Harry disappear?"

Dumbledore's expression darkened somewhat.

"We do not know, he has been staying with his Aunt and Uncle since his parent's death…."

"The Dursley's!" exclaimed Adam "Brian, how could you, surely you could have found a better home for him than that, they despise magic, Lily showed me so herself, why on Earth did you not send him to Sirius to look after?"

"Sirius was imprisoned in Azkaban." the Headmaster answered quietly.

"He was what?" exclaimed Adam jumping to his feet. "In the name of the God's, what for?"

"For the murder of Peter Pettigrew and a street full of Muggles, we now know that Peter was in fact the murderer, it turned out that he had been made the Potter's secret keeper when Voldemort went after them, even I did not know, three years ago he escaped and came to Hogwarts, he found Peter disguised as the youngest Mr Weasley's pet rat, Remus Lupin, Harry and his friends captured him but unfortunately due to the full moon Remus transformed and distracted them long enough for him to escape."

"I see." nodded Adam slowly, by this time he had taken returned to his seat.

"The year before last Voldemort arose again, Harry witnessed it as well as seeing a friend die at Peter's hands and last year Sirius died at the Ministry. Harry blames himself for both deaths; he took Sirius's death very hard as did Remus and Nymphadora Tonks."

"His cousin."

"Yes, she hasn't been herself since, this summer Harry disappeared we have tried sending owls to find him but they have all come back to no avail, we have contacted everyone we know but everywhere we looked proved useless, we still do not know why he left or where he is living, I can only hope that we can convince him to stay."

"I think I have a rough idea as to why he left," said Adam "Lily spoke very poorly of her sister and his husband, the last time they went to see them they were almost literally thrown out, I must say that I think sending him there was one of the worst decisions you have ever made."

Adam paused for a breath.

"Until lunch." he finished before heading to the door.

Dumbledore was slightly worried. He knew Adam and he was nothing if not a good man. But why would he conceal information from him and how did he know about Harry's friends and Tonks? Sirius might have mentioned her when they met he supposed but Harry's friends. He was also curious to know exactly why he thought that sending Harry to the Dursley's was such a bad idea.

Adam and Dumbledore had been the best of friends when Dumbledore had finished his Hogwarts schooling. He trusted him, but he could not shake this feeling that there was something bigger going on.

What he knew of The Guardian was just myth and legend. He would have to read the book soon.

On his way to the door Adam stopped and tensed up. He closed his eyes in concentration. He seemed to be trying to identify something he was sensing.

Dumbledore stood, expecting trouble.

Adam turned his head sharply. "Harry!"

He launched himself out the door, Dumbledore no more than a second behind him.

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:10th August 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – The Lake_

_Time:Morning_

Buffy and Harry were sitting down relaxing by the lake.

"So who exactly are you?" Harry asked as he idly threw pebbles into the water. He had just finished showing Buffy the Great Hall and what other major areas of the school. They were taking a break before continuing around the grounds.

"I'm not sure anymore. I'm not really sure exactly where I am still." Buffy said.

"You're at Hogwarts." he replied, repeating what had already been said.

She turned to him with a patronizing look before starting to smile causing them both to laugh.

"Yes I know that," she continued. "I meant where on the Earth, if I am still on my Earth."

"Scotland, in the United Kingdom, couldn't you tell from our lack of accents." Harry commented.

"What do you mean the lack of them?" Buffy asked "You got accents, all proper old fashioned and English, especially that women, what was she, the Deputy Headmistress?"

"It's our language," Harry replied, obviously finding Buffy amusing. "You're the ones that change the pronunciations of things and change words etc. Oh and yes I know you are American. I could tell from YOUR accent."

Buffy gave him a small scowl, which made him laugh. Buffy liked this kid, if you could call him a kid. She was only a couple of years older than him.

"So what was all that stuff about this summer and what's with the broom, you can't be telling me that you seriously ride brooms."

"We do ride brooms, and I am actually a pretty good flier, I'm on our house sports team."

"You're kidding me." She replied with a lopsided smile "You really ride those things." she said pointing to his disguised broom.

Harry put his hand over the broom.

"Up." The broom jumped up a foot before Harry took it and placed it back on the ground.

"Cool." Buffy smiled "What about the summer thing?"

"That's a bit hard to explain, basically there is a war going on, the enemy is a evil wizard called Voldemort who everyone is so afraid of that they can not even say his name, I am his arch enemy as I accidentally defeated him when I was a year old which ended his first reign of terror, now he is back and he is after me, I have been living with my aunt and uncle since then but they despise magic, as a result I have spent all my childhood as basically their servant, this summer some friends of mine got me out and are keeping me safe, I won't tell you other reasons why but lets just say that this summer was by far the worst I had spent with my relatives, as a result I have lost faith in the Headmaster who is supposed to be defending me and as such I have remained hidden, or at least I did until I got the vision of the portal."

Buffy nodded her understanding.

"So wh…."

_Arry, Arry are you alright!_

"Wait a second." asked Harry.

"What?" Buffy answered confused.

"My current guardians are trying to contact me."

_Its ok Fleur, I'm fine._

_Oh thank Merlin, we though Dumbledore would have stunned you on site to stop you escaping._

_He tried but I brought my broom and dodged._

_Why did you go back? Madam Maxime set you left in such a rush that she didn't find out._

_I had a vision of a portal, there were two people in it and we had to get them out, they are now both safe and I am currently sitting beside one next to the lake._

_Who are they?_

_I don't know yet I haven't actually asked but I just know that they do not mean us any harm, do not worry I still have the portkey and I will return soon._

_Be careful my love._

He felt Fleur withdraw from his mind and turned back to Buffy to see her looking him in a very odd way.

"Sorry about that, you were saying?"

"What was that all about?" she asked confused.

"I was communicating telepathically with one of my guardians, but I must ask you not to tell anyone that I can do that, it's a secret."

She nodded slowly.

"That's kind of creepy."

He snorted elegantly.

"Yeah, I suppose it is a bit."

"So what exactly do they teach here anyway?"

"Transfigurations, Potions, Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts are the main subjects," answered a female voice from behind them.

* * *

Ron and Hermione where walking over the grounds towards where they could see Harry and one of their quests.

"I can not believe that Dumbledore is taking this so calmly, I expected him to stun Harry as soon as he arrived just to keep him 'safe'."

"I think the portal is more important at the moment Ron, they are very rare and normally don't open by accident." Hermione commented, deep in thought.

"Oh no, this means more research doesn't it," groaned Ron "Can't we just give this one a miss. It's not like more portals are just going to open."

"Oh like the one in the Great Hall didn't just open." she said, scowling at Ron out of the corner of her eye.

"Point taken." he grumbled back, seeing her stop dead at his words, it was something knew he was trying, he knew that if he always disagreed with her he would never get her to be his girlfriend.

She looked at him for a second wondering if she had really hears him accept defeat before dismissing it and continuing on, not saying a word.

They were now only ten meters from the pair.

On closer inspection and now that she was not crawling over his lap, Ron could see that this woman was fairly attractive, maybe a couple of years older than them, with blond hair, pretty eyes and a nice face.

"Wow, she's pretty."

Hermione stiffened and increased her pace.

_Shit, I didn't say that out loud did I?_

* * *

"Transfigurations, Potions, Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts are the main ones," a female voice from behind them answered.

Looking around, Buffy saw a girl taller than she was (though that wasn't really unusual) with a long brown mane of hair, and the red headed boy who was slightly shorter than Adam that she had been sitting on earlier, his hair was almost as bright as Willow's, they could have been relatives.

"Harry." smiled the girl before dropping down beside him and giving him a hug "We have been so worried."

"I'm fine Hermione, honestly." he smiled leaning back and smiling at the girl.

Clearing her throat slightly, Harry's attention turned back to Buffy.

"Sorry, I'm forgetting my manners, Buffy Summers, may I re-introduce Mr Ronald Weasley who you have of course already met, one of the famous Weasley clan identifiable by their distinctive hair." the boy gave a proud lopsided grin and shook her hand. He reminded her of Xander. "And Hermione Granger, the brightest student Hogwarts has ever seen."

Ron looked very pleased with Harry's comments and Hermione's face turned the colour of Ron's hair, which Buffy found highly amusing. She reminded her of Willow when she was younger. They were like carbon copies of the Scoobies.

"You two go here as well?" Buffy asked as they sat down beside them.

"Of course. How else would I have survived the last five years at this school?" Harry added with a chuckle, but he had a serious tone to his voice, which did not go unnoticed.

"Explainey?" Buffy asked, noticing his tone.

"Well, let's just say that I would be dead by now if it wasn't for these tw….actually why are you two here anyway?"

"Dumbledore brought us here, he said because it was safer and because G….," Ron tried "Because G…., because the other place we go to in summer is currently unused."

"What was all that grring about?" asked Buffy confused.

"Ron just tried to break a charm that it is not possible for him to break by revealing the location of the house that we stayed at last summer." explained Hermione.

"Oh." nodded Buffy, not quite sure if she understood what had just been said.

"You do know the real reason you are here don't you?" asked Harry turning to Hermione knowing that she would know the answer.

"Because if you send any letters he will be able to intercept Hedwig, yes we had thought of that." she nodded.

"Just as well I didn't try t…."

"Shhh!" whispered Buffy, stopping Harry in mid sentence, angling her head, as if trying to hear something; she turned in the direction of the forest.

"What is it?" Hermione asked.

"Someone's coming." she replied taking a few steps towards the forest.

"Run. Get help. Get Buffy to safety." said Harry drawing his wand, coming to stand in front of the blond.

"We are not leaving you." Hermione said, drawing her own and stepping to his side.

"And don't try to get rid of me, mister," Buffy said before Harry got the chance to argue. "I can take care of myself."

"Will one of you PLEASE go and get help," he pleaded.

Hermione and Ron exchanged looks before Hermione mouthed, "Be careful." turned and ran towards the castle.

"Buffy, you go too. Even if you can fight, these are wizards coming not Muggles, which means they will be using magic. You don't stand a chance," Harry said, attempting to convince her again.

Buffy very determinedly stepped up to the side of Harry that Hermione had just vacated as Ron moved up on the other.

"I'm staying. This is my resolve face, so don't try to push me around when I'm wearing it." she countered before turning and looking around for a weapon, unusually she didn't have a stake on her.

"You're not going to win mate." Smiled Ron.

Turning back to the forest Harry saw at least twenty cloaked figures walk out from between the trees. They were all dressed in black with white masks covering their faces.

"Geez, Phantom of the Opera much." taunted Buffy as they surrounded the trio on the sides that weren't water.

"Time to die Slayer." a familiar voice emanated from behind one of the masks.

"Not before you do Malfoy." Ron sneered back.

An evil laugh rippled through the masked figures.

"I would have to agree with that." Harry commented flatly.

Ron was trying to understand how he could remain that calm facing off with Malfoy, Buffy on the other hand understood that he was attempting to control the situation until Hermione could return, but even she could not understand but how Harry could remain THAT calm against these odds.

"Potter, look around you. If you leave now, we will not harm you."

"On the contrary, if you leave now we will not harm you and why do I somehow not trust you, Malfoy?" asked Harry.

"I give you my word," Malfoy said, straightening and switching back to his Lord of the Manor voice, while his companions laughed at Harry's comment

"And why would we trust the word of one of Tom's lap dogs?" Ron spat back.

Harry inwardly groaned.

_Well done Ron. Bang goes that plan. Remind me to hit you if you get us killed._

Lucius shot a curse at them which Harry dodged (thank God for this summers training.)

Harry smiled. "You will have to be faster than that, Malfoy."

"ATTACK," Lucius roared.

Before the first curse had even been fired there was an enormous splash as a tentacle shot out of the lake and swiped at the Death Eaters, knocking at least a half dozen to the ground and leaving several unconscious. Another massive appendage shot out and collided with the Death Eaters on the other side of the trio, knocking another half dozen Death Eaters to the floor, including Malfoy.

The trio jumped into action (despite Buffy's shock at seeing a giant tentacle launch itself out of a fresh water lake).

The boys immediately moved to either side of Buffy, keeping her between them so they could block incoming curses. Lucius, having got to his feet, shot a killing curse at Harry; it missed, sailing off over the grounds in the direction of the school.

Killing Curses were sent their way, but all were dodged and countered with various hexes and jinxes. The boys were determined not to let Buffy get hit.

Not liking her confined state, Buffy vaulted over Harry, who was more than a little surprised at seeing her appear in front of him, and started punching and kicking the living daylights out of the Death Eaters who also hadn't expected this and they were now rapidly trying to back out of the way, leaving them open to attack by the boys.

Unfortunately, Harry and Ron didn't have time to worry about how on Earth Buffy had managed to send the enemy flying, as the Death Eaters were now getting a little annoyed at their lack of progress and were giving them everything they'd got, luckily these Death Eaters, not including Malfoy, were clearly amateurs allowing the trio to hold their own until Ron caught a curse in the arm and sent him to the floor unconscious.

* * *

Adam was running as fast as he could through the corridors of Hogwarts, for some reason he couldn't go as fast as usually could and he didn't seem to have his normal level of power to draw upon.

He reached the 1st floor just as Hermione arrived looking very out of breath.

"Where?" Adam demanded as he approached, Dumbledore twenty meters behind him

"Who….are...Doesn't.…matter.…Harry.…Death.…Eaters.…Forest," she gasped as she turned and attempted to run back, only to collapse on the floor. Adam saw a mark on her side; the skin was cracking and turning black. It was spreading up her side, there was no way she could keep going with a wound like that.

If it wasn't treated soon, she would die.

Dumbledore turned the corner as Adam scooped Hermione up in his arms and continued running. Having made up the gap between them Dumbledore was now no more than five meters behind him. Dumbledore was starting to panic. If Miss Granger had come back without the others the attack must have started as or just after she left. That must have been several minutes ago how long could the others hold out?

* * *

After Ron had been hit, the battle had taken a turn for the worst. Buffy and Harry had been manoeuvred away from the lake so the Squid could no longer assist. Added to that, they had been separated; Buffy was over twenty meters away from Harry and constantly dodging curses, giving her no time in between to attack.

Harry was faced off against Lucius and three other Death Eaters who luckily weren't all that good or they would have broken through his shields by now, he too could not get close enough to attack them hand to hand. He had tried making his way back to Ron so he could revive him, but he couldn't get the Death Eaters to cooperate.

Unfortunately the Death Eaters had finally discovered that working together they could collapse his shield. The spells collided at the same time, destroying his shield with a bang due to all the magic colliding at once sending Harry and the Death Eaters flying.

Harry quickly regained his feet and aimed his wand.

WAND

He looked around frantically. His wand was lying over ten meters away.

It must have been knocked out of his hand by the blast.

Lucius, who now had his back to the school, got to his feet and turned on Harry.

"It ends Potter," he spat, raising his wand, his eyes full of venom now that he had removed his mask and hood.

A screech tore across the sky as bird dived out of the sky

Malfoy turned to the noise only to have the bird fly into his face, talons extended.

The bird tore at his face causing Malfoy to scream in pain until he managed to batter the thing away, leaving blood streaming down his face.

Harry watched as the bird banked around and in one smooth movement, picked up his wand and threw it into his waiting hand before heading towards the castle.

Turning back to finish it, Harry discovered Lucius's wand at his throat.

He was sporting a huge gash straight through his left eye or what the remained of his eye anyway.

"There's no one here to save you now Potter, not even that ruddy bird," Lucius growled, glaring viciously out of his remaining eye socket.

Something large and grey flew through the air, colliding with the back of Lucius's head.

Harry watched as he wobbled for a moment before falling to the ground unconscious.

Harry looked past the place where Malfoy had been. Buffy was standing about ten meters away holding her hand up, ready to throw the other object held within it.

"A stone?" Harry said, almost laughing. "They were using Unforgivable Curses and you threw a stone."

"Hey, don't knock it mister. I just saved your life." Buffy said with a certain amount of annoyance.

Harry thought about it for a moment and gave an agreeing nod.

"Thank you," he said before walking towards her. As he approached she seemed to slump before passing out and falling to the ground. He noticed a huge gash on her side. He needed to get her to the hospital wing quickly.

He heard footsteps approaching behind him and he spun around, raising his wand, only to find Dumbledore running up to them.

"Harry.…are you alright?"

"I'm fine, but Buffy's not. Get her to the Hospital Wing while I go and revive Ron….and get someone to tie up these Death Eaters."

Dumbledore looked around.

"There seems to be a slight problem there, Harry."

Harry turned to look. There was not a single body of a Death Eater or black cloak anywhere in site, not even a single drop of blood.

"But.…I saw…. There were," he stuttered.

"I know, Harry. I saw them too."


	33. CH33 Explanations And Conversations

Chapter 33 – Explanations And Conversations

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:10th August 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – The Hospital Wing_

_Time:Lunch Time_

The Hospital Wing. Buffy, Harry, Ron and Hermione are in beds, all conscious while Professor Dumbledore and McGonagall are standing together deep in thought while Snape paces much to the annoyance of Madam Pomfrey who was fusing over the 'Injured Party's'.

"Really I'm fine honestly, I don't need to be kept in" Hermione protested.

"You were hit by a Killing Curse Miss Granger…you were just lucky it only skimmed you, if you had arrived any later or you had been hit full on I seriously doubt you would still be with us." Madam Pomfrey argued "Fortunately when a Killing Curse skims you it does not act upon you in the same way, it causes the skin to start to deteriorate and die but luckily you got here in time, it takes less than five minutes to kill this way and to my knowledge you are the first to have survived this sort of run in with the Killing Curse."

"I'm amazed the curse hit you at all Hermione, it was aimed at me and only missed because I dodged, you were over a hundred meters away" Harry commented, though the worry was evident in his voice.

"Think of it Hermione," said Ron grinning, trying to hide his urge to hug Hermione with humour "You can now be known as 'The Girl-Who-Lived.'"

Hermione scowled while Harry and Dumbledore hid there smiles.

"Wait…how, how did I actually get here?" Hermione asked returning to the previous comment "I remember running into that man in the corridor, then….then I must have passed out, who was that man anyway?"

"That would be me."

The voice filled the room but didn't seem to come from anywhere

All looked around for the source of the voice, it didn't sound like a Sonorus Charm as the voice didn't seem to have a source.

"Who are you?" Hermione asked to nowhere in particular.

A screech was heard outside; a bird flew in through one of the high windows and landed on the rail at the end of Hermione's bed.

On closer inspection Hermione recognized it as a Falco Peregrinus, the Peregrine Falcon, the name meant Wandering Falcon, it is a cosmopolitan species that lives world wide and it is also the fastest animal on the planet.

_My god, I really am a bookworm._

"That's the bird that raked Lucius Malfoy's eye out." Harry commented.

"It did what?" Snape demanded, coming to a full stop and glaring at Harry.

"Raked his left eye out." Harry repeated trying not to growl out his response, god he hated that man.

Snape face changed to display what could safely be described as the most evil grin any of the assembled group had ever seen. He was definitely enjoying the thought of Malfoy in pain, which did not go unnoticed by the others occupants of the room.

As soon as he noticed their attention he rapidly shrunk back into his dark shell, which itself earned looks of amusement from Dumbledore, McGonagall and the falcon (if that's possible).

"Wait," Ron thought out loud. "Isn't Malfoy supposed to be in Azkaban Prison?"

There was a short silence in which the teachers exchanged awkward looks.

"Azkaban is empty," Dumbledore informed them, sighing heavily. "The Minister finally decided to replace the Dementors, but by the time the Aurors got there to replace them, Azkaban was devoid of any form of life, no Dementors, no prisoners, nothing, all they found was a couple of young Lethifold's."

There was a long silence in which everyone considered what Voldemort could do with all those Dementors, or rather those who knew what they were did, Buffy just sat thinking about what type of demons these Dementors could be.

Eventually the silence was broken by the bird giving a short call before hopping onto the ground.

It grew, changed shape and altered its posture. It grew until it was at least six feet tall, quickly assuming the shape of The Guardian.

"You?" Hermione said, surprised.

He looked down at himself and then replied dryly "Last time I checked." earning smiles from Buffy and Dumbledore.

"Who are you?"

"He's the one who saved your life, Miss Granger," Madam Pomfrey explained, though she too was quite shocked by what she had just seen. "He came flying in through the window. You were launched out of the birds chest and landed softly on a bed while the bird flew out of the room again."

"I had to check the grounds were clear," Adam explained, coming to sit in the chair between Buffy's and Hermione's beds. "When I found you in the corridor I transformed myself along with you into the bird, flew onto the grounds, helped Harry, flew here and left you in Madam Pomfrey's capable hands before going back outside to conduct an aerial sweep of the grounds and forest. I would have got you back here immediately, but Harry needed my help and I knew my magic would keep you alive, even in my depleted state."

"Thank you," Hermione sighed, obviously coming under the effect of The Guardians 'magical' aura (or maybe just his good looks) though she did seem to be studying his features, for other reasons than stated above.

"I'm Hermione Granger." she said, extending her hand.

"You're welcome," he said, kissing her hand. "Miss Granger, I am Adam."

"Adam?" she replied dreamily. When she noticed everyone's attention on her, her face turned the colour of Ron's hair…and his face come to mention it, obviously not pleased that Hermione was looking at someone else like that.

"Just Adam."

Hermione's reaction got smiles from Dumbledore and McGonagall and.

"Albus," Adam said, getting up "I think it is time for lunch."

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:10th August 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Dumbledore's Office_

_Time:Afternoon_

The Headmasters Office; the Gryffindor Trio, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Madam Pomfrey and Buffy are sitting around the Headmasters desk. Adam is standing beside it and Snape is leaning against the opposing wall in the shadows.

Those who had keen eyesight or were good at observation would have seen Adam rotating a small silver disk between the fingers of his right hand. The disk was about two and a half centimetres wide, with a hole in the centre just over half a centimetre in diameter. The rest of the disk seemed to be covered by lines which all seeming to be concentric. Both sides had these, though each side was unique. The only people who noticed in this case were Harry, Dumbledore, Snape and Hermione.

"Questions?" Adam asked.

"Who are you?" Harry asked earning a smile from Adam at his to the point approach.

"I am The Guardian of Light."

"I've heard about him," Hermione jumped in. "...I mean you." Adam and Albus exchanged smiles, as did Harry and Ron.

"Go on then, Miss Granger. Please enlighten us." Adam said, smiling.

"Please, call me Hermione," she said with a blush. "You've been around a long time about….about..." Hermione screwed up her brow, searching her mind for the answer.

"Fifteen billion years," Adam supplied, earning looks from everyone except Buffy, Dumbledore and Hermione.

"Yes." She nodded.

"I think it is fair to say that I look pretty good for my age." he added dryly.

Buffy burst out laughing and was sent a look of venom from Snape. Everyone else was trying with various levels of success to stifle their laughter behind their hands, either from the joke, Buffy's reaction or Snape's reaction to Buffy.

"Miss Gra…I beg your pardon, Hermione, please continue."

"Of course." she stifled what remained of her laughter. "Well you were created to be the ultimate warrior."

"Not a very nice way to say it Hermione," said Ron "It makes him sound like a murderous matchean."

Harry rolled his eyes, one day Ron would develop some tact.

"It's machine Ron," she corrected before turning to Adam "Sorry….the most powerful fighter?" she tried, waiting for Adam's acceptance of the definition before continuing "For the side of light, you are supposed to fight this apocalyptic battle with….with.…with.…" she struggled

"Go on….you're almost there," Adam encouraged, a slight smile edging its way along his lips.

"….THE FIRST," she finished a bit too loudly, feeling quite proud of herself.

"Very good. I'll have to get Albus to lend you the book at some point. I'd lend you mine if I still had it."

Upon mention of the book and her realisation that Willow still had it, Buffy suddenly realised that she didn't have a clue what happened to her friends after they fell through the portal.

"Oh my God. Willow, Dawn are they ok, what happened after we left?" she blurted out, standing and beginning to look frantic. Harry moved quickly in front of her, gripped her shoulders.

"Buffy...BUFFY!" he shouted, trying to get her attention over the babbling. "Your friends will be fine."

"He's right, Buffy," Adam added. "I would know if they were seriously hurt."

"Are you sure?" Buffy said calming down a bit and allowing Harry to push her back into her seat.

"Trust me." Harry smiled.

She looked deep in to Harry's eyes and saw how certain he was, they were the sort of eyes that made you trust the owner implicitly, they were like Adam's, you knew they could place your life in their hands and you knew they would always do the right thing.

No one noticed Adam smile at Harry's actions.

"Ok, I'm sorry," Buffy apologised.

"Completely understandable, Miss Summers," forgave Dumbledore.

"Anyway, next question." Adam asked.

"Who are you?" Harry asked Buffy, still standing in front of her "And how did you manage to defeat those Death Eaters without using magic?"

Adam turned to Buffy.

"Do you want to do the speech, or shall I?"

"No let me," she said smiling. "I can do a pretty good Giles," she cleared her throat "Into every generation, a Slayer is born. One girl in all the world, a chosen one. She alone will have the strength to fight the demons, the vampires and the forces of darkness, to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their numbers."

"And you're this Slayer?" Ron asked.

"Yes" Buffy answered.

"So you fight the forces of evil?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, demons and vampires mostly, though I have fought a Hell God."

"A Hell God?" Hermione asked.

"Yep, name of Glory." she added.

"Glorificus," Adam corrected. "We can give you a demonstration later. Next question?"

"Bloody Hell."

"Ron, don't swear." Hermione scolded.

"How did you get here?" Ron asked ignoring Hermione's complaint.

"We came through a portal." stated Buffy like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Adam smiled slightly while Dumbledore chuckled quietly.

"I think he meant how you came to be falling through a portal into the Great Hall." Hermione clarified.

"She had just fought previously mentioned Hell God with a little help from her robot counterpart, a Dagon sphere and a troll hammer and had run up to the top of a tower to save her sister, who is actually a sphere of green energy called The Key."

"ADAM!" Buffy shouted.

"We can trust them, Buffy," Adam reassured her. "I can give you a full explanation later, but the abbreviated version is as follows: she was slightly late and her sister's blood spilled and opened said portal, which would destroy existence as we know it. The only way to close it was for the blood to stop flowing."

He paused briefly for dramatic effect.

"But as the monks who turned The Key into Buffy's sister had made her entirely out of Buffy, she is an exact biological copy of Buffy except for her looks because the Key's energy changed them," he digressed. "But we can look into that later. As Buffy is the exact genetic copy to her sister, her blood could also stop the portal."

Everyone sat transfixed, what amazed them was even though it sounded like a lecture he said it in such a way that it was interesting, even to Buffy who already knew all this.

"So Buffy jumped in and closed the portal. I was there because I was battling with my brother, son, twin, call him what you will, that is also a conversation for another time. Simply I had been battling my brother after defeating about one hundred of his demon henchmen, which needless to say took a lot out of me. We had battled and I had finally defeated him when he reminded me that as I had to come forward in time to catch up with him I had missed Dawn being taken prisoner and a lot of other fairly important events that happened in my absence, so I mentally searched for you," he said looking at Buffy. "Saw you on the tower and very rapidly flew from the Indian Ocean to Sunnydale, though I did tear up the Time Space Continuum in the process, which might hold the explanation to a mystery which I will explain in a minute."

He paused for a brief second before continuing.

"So I got to Sunnydale about a thousandth of a second too late and got caught in the portal too and then we woke up in the Hospital Wing," he finished. Everyone in the entire room was looking at him like he had grown another head.

"Is something wrong?" he said, confused by their looks.

"How long can you hold your breath?" Hermione asked, astonished.

"A bit longer than you." he replied with comprehension.

"Anyway back to the matter at hand. Why did this Glorificus want to open this portal in the first place?" Dumbledore asked turning to Adam.

"It was supposed to open to her dimension, though for some reason it deposited us here, but that is mystery I think I have solved." Adam answered.

"What was the other mystery you mentioned earlier?" Harry asked.

"I think it will be better if I explain that mystery first. The mystery is why the Death Eaters attacked now, so soon after we arrived, hardly a coincidence." Adam let the sentence hang before Harry continued following his line of thought.

"It wasn't…a coincidence, that is…but they were not after me this time. They wanted Buffy." everyone from Hogwarts looked at the Slayer.

"I don't know why these guys want me," she said, holding up her hands in ignorance.

"I think I do….just before we left, you defeated Glory," Adam said to Buffy.

"Yeah, thanks to the troll hammer."

"Well she was working with my brother," he added for the benefit of those who did not know. "I believe the answer to this mystery to be also the answer to the other, though I don't like what it could mean."

He paused to think for a minute. Everyone else thought their brains were going to explode. There were far too many mysteries being discussed at the same time. It was a nightmare to keep track of them.

"When I was trying to get to you, I was travelling extremely fast, faster than anyone ever should," he paused again for dramatic effect.

"Whilst I was doing so, I had to pass through a dimension portal to reach you. As I passed through the portal at such a high speed, it created a lot of subspace damage and I believe I tore through the barrier between dimensions, leaving what can best be described as an open wound. I believe 'The Gods'," he said mockingly. A growl of thunder was heard from outside which was very strange due to the fact it had been glorious sunshine not a moment ago.

"Give it a rest," Adam said at the ceiling. "Interfere with someone else's existence for once."

Another roll of thunder was heard followed by a flash of lightning striking one of the class windows causing it to shatter, sending glass falling in that luckily empty corner of the room.

"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted," Adam continued, clenching his teeth and waving his hand in the direction of the window causing it to repair itself. He paused in case he was about to get interrupted again. "They," he said, nodding at the ceiling. "Redirected the portal through the tear towards Hogwarts, once they knew we were going to come through it. The portal's energy along with some of mine could seal the tear between dimensions," he said with an annoyed tone. "Now coming back to the other mystery, I believe in doing that, our two dimensions merged into one."

"What, you mean yours and ours?" Ron inquired.

Adam turned to Hermione, knowing that she would understand him and not to disappoint him, she hit the bull's-eye.

"You mean that our dimension now has demons?"

"And mine has wizards and witches with wands?" Buffy added.

"With wands?" Hermione questioned. "You mean yours don't?" she added excitedly.

"That's a yes to all the first two and a no to the last." Adam answered.

"Oh dear." said Ron flatly.

"Exactly, and I believe when that happened, my brother James came here and contacted Voldemort."

There were collective shudders from all but Adam, Dumbledore, Harry, Hermione and Buffy, as she didn't know why they were shuddering in the first place.

"And made an alliance." Hermione finished.

Adam nodded.

"Tom's not stupid," Dumbledore confirmed. "If your brother has the same powers you do then Tom would have been able to see that he is a lot more powerful than he ever was. He'd know it would be better for him to join James, better to work with him rather than for him or against him."

"Exactly," Adam agreed. "And he probably wanted to act as soon as possible before either you or I were ready to defend her."

"Why is she so important?" Snape asked, speaking for the first time.

"Hello, you guys do know I'm right here," Buffy complained. "I can hear everything you're saying. Please stop talking about me like I'm not."

"My apologies," said Adam before turning to Snape. "Answering your question, I believe it is because of my great battle with The First. During that battle, I am going to need help in eliminating the rest of The First's army. Buffy was going to be one of my Generals and The First knows that it is a lot easier for him to eliminate her when she is on her own and weak, rather than when armed to the teeth and surrounded by an army of others."

"Well, if there are no further questions, I believe it's time for dinner," Dumbledore concluded.

Some of the group got up to leave.

"Wait. There is something else," said Buffy. "What are we going to do? Because if we are going to head back to Sunnydale we should really get moving."

"We won't be going back, Buffy." said Adam slowly.

"What?" she demanded.

"If we were meant to go back we wouldn't have been sent here; in addition they are probably planning the funerals for us both by now, even though there are no bodies to bury."

Buffy experienced a flash of pain at the thought of her sister being all alone without her there to care for her.

"We have to stay here for some reason. It's almost ironic really, as the place I was going after Sunnydale was going to be Hogwarts."

"Why?" Snape demanded

"To ask for your help in the Great Battle, but let's not talk about that now. What we need to discuss is what we are going to do once the pupils return."

"I think I have an idea about that," Dumbledore said with one of his knowing smiles. "Buffy have you ever had any experience teaching?"

Buffy sat there stunned before bursting out laughing.

"Me.…teach….that's….that's a good one." she managed before collapsing in to laughter.

After a minute to lying on the floor laughing she saw the expression on Dumbledore's face.

"You're serious?" she asked, slightly worried as Dumbledore's nodded.

"I can't teach. I can't do magic for a start."

"I was thinking more along the lines of a self defence club….maybe called.…"

"Muggle Defence." Adam suggested.

"Yes," Dumbledore agreed. "And as it would be a club, you would only have to teach a small number of students, say fourth years and above, maybe every Saturday afternoon between two and four. You and Adam could run it jointly."

"You could teach hand to hand combat and I could teach the use of weapons as well as assisting in demonstrations." Adam offered.

"Well.…I….um...ok." Buffy finally managed to stutter, not really knowing what she was letting herself in for.

"Excellent, I will have rooms arranged for you immediately." Dumbledore smiled. "Then I suggest we go down to dinner."

"Not yet Headmaster," sneered Snape "Potter has yet to explain where he has been all summer."

"I am not going to tell you anything Snivellus." replied Harry in the same tone.

Snape growled drawing his wand, but Harry was already on his broom and out of one of the open windows.

"Severus," sighed Dumbledore "I wish you would control yourself, every time you draw on him he fly's off, if you want to stop him leaving you have to find a way to keep him here and you must be diplomatic."


	34. CH34 Plotting And Praying

Chapter 34 – Plotting And Praying

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:10th August 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Hogwarts Grounds_

_Time:Afternoon_

Harry was skimming across the grounds on his broom on the way back from the Quidditch pitch.

After his rapid exit from Dumbledore's Office he had decided to take a flying tour of the grounds before attempting to rejoin the group.

He had decided to take a detour to the lake to see the Squid. After the battle, he had not had the chance to thank it for helping, he mentally noted to bring some food with him next time.

He reached the lake and flew over the ring of larger rocks surrounding the shore and skimmed a little way over the water.

As he passed over the boulders he could have sworn he had heard a yelp, doubling back he saw to his surprise a very startled Buffy lying in a heap on the shore; he approached and jumped off the broom.

"Are you alright?"

"What do you think? I was lying here relaxing, minding my own business when a broom passed less than a meter above my head." She looked just as intrigued as annoyed.

"Sorry," he replied, plucking his broom out of the air and walking towards Buffy. "I expected everyone to be at lunch."

"We finished early, Adam went of to the library or something so I thought I would come and see Squidward."

He raised an eye brow at her.

"Squidward?"

"Well what would you call him them?"

"Is he even a he?" asked Harry.

She shrugged and settled back into her makeshift rock seat. "So how come you fly off every time someone asks about where you have been?"

"Like I said earlier I have been living with my aunt and uncle since I was one and this summer they decided that they had had enough, some of my friends who work with Dumbledore, thought it might be a good idea to scare 'my family', and I use the term extremely loosely, into treating me better. So as soon as I got back home I was thrown into the room I used to live in, not that you could call it a room, and I was beaten, punched, kicked and burned until I could not even move," he said, sitting down beside her.

"They what! Why?"

"Because they don't like me or anything to do with magic, even mentioning magic is blasphemy. What made it worse was the fact that I came down with Wizard Flu which is much more dangerous than normal flu, I was locked in my room for five days with no food or water, sick with the flu and black and blue from the beating, I was actually at the point of begging for death."

Buffy was seeing red; she was really wanted to hurt something now, preferably Harry's relatives.

"But just in time my current hosts rescued me, they treated me, cared for me and ensured that I was safe, I won't tell you about the rest of my summer but that is the main reason why I am here."

Buffy was beginning to grind her teeth. If she ever met Harry's 'family', she would make them pay for what they had put him through. She now knew what he'd been through in his short life. He reminded her of herself, how could someone who'd been through so much grow up to be so nice?

"Buffy, BUFFY," Harry called, waving his hand in front of her face.

"Hey, what?" she said shaking her head. "Oh sorry, zoned out for a minute there. What were you saying?"

"I said I want you to promise that you will tell only Adam about this, even my friends don't know yet, I would make you promise not to tell him but if he is as powerful as he says he is I probably wouldn't be able to keep the information from him if he wanted it."

"I promise." said Buffy trying to calm herself down.

"So what's it like being a Slayer?" asked Harry lying back against a rock.

"Oh, well you know, usual stuff…patrol at night, slay the odd vampire, kill the odd demon, avert the apocalypse."

Harry stared at her with a raised eyebrow.

"What?" Buffy asked.

"You call that the usual stuff?" he said, amused.

"Oh and I assume you think flying and making objects float is totally ordinary."

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:10th August 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – The library_

_Time:Afternoon_

Hermione was searching the shelves for books on The Guardian. Even though he had told them all that they wouldn't find any, but never one to pass up a challenge she thought it was worth a try.

She was walking down an aisle reading from an old tome that lay open in her arms, it described a powerful being who helped save a small colony of Chinese wizards from a dragon attack, it spoke of how an oddly dressed Caucasian man with dark hair appeared seemingly out of nowhere, tamed the beast and disappeared just as quickly, unfortunately as with most old texts (and much to Hermione's annoyance) the tomb failed to say how he 'tamed the beast', she couldn't even tell whether he engaged it in unarmed combat and barely escaped with his life, or if he simply brought out a pipe and sang it to sleep, which of course she now knew actually works.

She turned the corner that led her out of the shelves and turned back in the direction of the table she had been sitting at, she had barely taken a step when her foot caught on something causing her to trip.

With a squeak she closed her eyes and fell forward, but instead of encountering the carpeted library floor she landed on something soft as she heard her tome fall hard to the floor.

Opening her eyes she looked up only to find that she was lying on top of the Guardian while he sat against a bookshelf with his legs outstretched and an amused smile on his face.

Looking around, she realised that she had miscalculated and had in fact wandered straight out of the shelves and walked into the corner where he had been lying.

"Good afternoon Hermione." he said.

In a panic she attempted to get up very rapidly and proceeded to trip over her own robes (Why had she bothered to wear them anyway). This time she ended up falling straight at him. She closed her eyes as she fell, not wanting to see where she landed.

After she landed, she could feel a slight pressure on her lips; she opened her eyes and realised that she was looking straight into Adam's own. The pressure on her lips were his. She had somehow managed to land on his lips.

The kiss was very chaste, nothing serious and could easily be called an accident.

She leaned back, her arms stabilising her on the shelf he was leaning on as she blurted out, "Oh God, I'm SO sorry. I didn't mean to, I…."

She suddenly stopped talking; the reason for her silence being that she had made the mistake of looking into his eyes. They were the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen.

Hazel, not that you would have been able to see that from a reasonable distance and she was most definitely not at a reasonable distance.

"It's quite alright…." he began, only to be cut of by Hermione's next action.

She would later come to regret what happened next, but also she wished that it would happen again. She suddenly felt the urge to lean forward and kiss him full on the lips, cutting him of mid-sentence. Her arms went around behind him, pulling herself closer as he moved his hands to hold her shoulders.

The kiss wasn't chaste; it had passion. It was most definitely what you would call a lovers kiss, the type where you cling to each other for dear life, which is exactly what Hermione was doing right now, but what shocked her even more when she looked back on the events of that day was the fact that not only had her first kiss been with a Professor, but her first full snog was also with a Professor.

After about ten seconds, she realised what she was doing and froze. She pulled back so their faces were about five inches apart.

His face was unreadable, Hermione's expression on the other hand was rapidly changing; horror because she had kissed a Professor and the fact that she had only known him for a day, shame that she had allowed herself to lose control, anxiousness that he didn't seem to react suggesting that she was a bad kisser, embarrassment that she had tripped over in the first place and desire to try again.

She threw herself backwards off him so she was sitting awkwardly on the floor. She crawled backwards. "I...I'm...I was…. There...I…. You see...I...oh God," she blurted out.

Adam got onto his knees and caught her hand before she had got any further. "Hermione, it's ok really. I don't mind," he said, attempting to calm her.

"It's just...and I...and then we," she continued.

"Hermione!" he said loudly, attempting to take control of the situation. (Thank God Madam Pince was on holiday at the moment, she would have thrown them out.)

She stopped and stared.

"Look into my eyes," he said.

'NO! I...mean... I shouldn't…. That's how it started." Oh God, now she was shouting at a Professor.

"Look." he said firmly, taking her head in his hands.

She looked into his eyes.

"It….is….alright," he said slowly. "I do not mind. You are a young developing woman, your body is full of hormones, you reacted to being in close contact with a man, I understand that you do not have feelings for me and that it was spur of the moment...You do not need to worry….ok?"

His voice was so soothing. Oh God, she wanted to kiss him again. NO...no...she liked Ron...She liked Ron. If only she could tell him that….oh God.

"Ok?" he said again, despite his words of reassurance, Hermione was not sure his explanation for the encounter was correct, though she prayed it was.

"Ok." she answered. He stood and held out his hand for her. She cautiously took it and stood as well.

He bent down and retrieved his and her books and handed her open tomb back to her.

"Come sit with me," he said, walking towards a nearby table still carrying the rest of her books.

Hermione froze. She was terrified she would try to kiss him again.

_Stay focused Hermione, focus...focus... Think of Ron's red hair, his eyes...eyes. _

She didn't even know the colour of Ron's eyes.

"Hermione?" Adam asked. She realised she hadn't moved she was standing exactly where she had tripped.

"S...sorry," she replied, moving to the table a little too quickly, and almost tripped again.

"Honestly Hermione, it is all right. Don't worry about it," he said leaning over and taking her hand in comfort. Oh God, he had nice hands, such a gentle touch.

"Ok," she managed, turning her attention to her book as he withdrew his hand. He picked a book up off the table and then began writing in it.

"What are you researching?" he inquired, not looking up.

_Oh dear. Why did he have to ask that?_

"I was….well I...I," she stuttered.

"I should have guessed," he said, looking up and smiling. "I can't blame you for trying. It's not that I don't want you to find anything, but I honestly don't think you're going to."

"I….I did actually." She answered nervously.

"Really," he smiled looking up in interest "Anything conclusive or just someone appeared and then disappeared?"

She turned the tomb around so he could read the page.

"Oh, the Chinese Fireball in 1589, I haven't thought about that for millennia." He smiled before turning the book back to her before returning his attention to the book in his hand.

Trying to distract herself from what had just happened Hermione noticed again that he was twirling the silver disk between the fingers of his spare right hand.

She was trying desperately to think of anything but Adam, but there was something that was nagging at her. When she had kissed Adam, he hadn't pulled her closer, but he also hadn't pushed her away.

She just had to ask, "Professor...am I…."

"You're not a bad kisser," he answered before she even finished asking, not looking up from his book as he did so.

"Are you...?"

"Yes, I am sure."

"But when I kissed you, you didn't respond."

He placed his book on the table and turned to her. "I do recall kissing you back, but if you mean why I didn't pull you in closer."

She nodded.

"You will also recall I did not push you away either."

It was true, he had not.

"I was simply letting you kiss me. I wasn't encouraging you and I wasn't pushing you away. That way you would realise on your own what you were doing and you would stop yourself. You would also know you could stop yourself if a similar occasion occurred in the future, in addition to the fact that I am now your Professor, or at least I will be on September first and it would have been inappropriate….You are not a bad kisser. That was a very good kiss for a first attempt and Ron would be a fool to turn down anyone who could kiss like that."

Hermione blushed.

_How did he know I liked Ron? I didn't tell him_.

"And so you know, Ron has blue eyes."

Oh God, she hadn't verbalised that had she.

They sat in silence for a minute before Hermione started studying the table they were sitting at.

On one side of the table was a stack of pagers, which were slanted allowing Hermione to see what was on the below sheets, every spare inch was covered with complex mathematical equations, mostly crossed out, written through or covered in organised notes in several different languages.

"What are you researching" she asked.

He looked up and saw her looking at the equations. "That was my attempt to create a more affective method of dimensional travel."

"You mean a portal or wormhole?" she asked, leaning forward, interested in the idea. She found it fascinating that while he spoke, the hand holding the disk alternated between twirling said object and sketching on a piece of parchment at phenomenal speed, despite the fact that he hadn't looked at the parchment once.

"Almost yes, you see creating a portal is relatively easy providing you have enough energy, even time and dimensional ones, but wormholes which are one of the only few stable ways to travel between dimensions that allow you to actually plan where you are going, well….they require precise mathematics to work. You have to firstly fix the entry and exit coordinates, then determine whether it is temporary or permanent. Added to that, you need to plan whether there will be a time differential between the two ends, the radius of the openings, the positioning of the connection, whether it will be on the same plane or otherwise, what the power source for the wormhole will be and finally how the wormhole will be activated."

"Why not simply use portals?" she asked.

"Portals are instant transportation and that is something that my magic does not work well with."

"I don't understand?" she said confused.

"You know your magic resides in your blood yes." She nodded "Well mine does not work like that; mine is tied to my spatial coordinates as my magical core does not reside within me. Imagine….imagine that you are holding a piece of string vertically and you are looking down from above it."

"Ok." She nodded, not quite understanding where this was going.

"When you can not see the length of string, only the end because the rest is hanging vertically below it, that is when my magic is gathered in the same space as me, but if you move the top of the string that you are holding, the tail will wave around until gravity pulls it straight again. That is how my magic works, its sort of like a time delay, if I move on a train or plane or some other form of Muggle transport my magic will be almost on top of me because in the grand scheme of things I am not moving that fast, but if I use a portkey, I Apparate or if I use Floo Travel then that is close to instant travel so my magic will still be where I was moments before, which is why I am currently a lot weaker than I am normally as I did some very rapid flying just before I came here including one time and one dimension jump so my magic is currently scattered widely over the Atlantic and Indian Oceans not to mention Africa and America, it should take a couple of days for it to fall back into place."

He sighed, waving his hand carelessly at the stack of paper. "Portals are very bad for me magically, a wormhole or a similar method of transport is like travelling down a tunnel as a shortcut, meaning that although it is very fast its not instant and is therefore better for me, but as you can see, it is not easy."

He then laid the book he had been writing in on the desk. "I'm now just writing in my journal, as I no longer have my old one."

"What happened to it?" she asked, now over her earlier embarrassment.

"I left it in Sunnydale with Buffy's friends. It has a complete record of all my activities in the last fifteen billion years, and yes before you ask it is magic. Otherwise it would be the size of an office block."

She laughed slightly, it pleased him that she had recovered from her stuttering. She had begun to sound like Tara.…before he met her of course. Tara was now getting fairly confident. She would soon be a real asset to the Forces of Light.

He closed the book. On the front Hermione saw the image of a stag's head.

"You like deer?"

"Indeed, it is the symbol of The Guardian...my sign...I choose it just after I ascended."

"Ascended to becoming The Guardian?" she guessed.

He nodded.

"Harry likes stags." she commented.

"Because of his father."

She looked up surprised.

"You knew his father?"

"Yes, you were not there when we first regained consciousness, so you missed the conversation."

"Does Harry know?"

"I told him as soon as I found out who he was."

They returned to their reading for a couple more minutes before Hermione raised her head again, after he had explained to her about the kiss she had begun to feel guilty about putting him as a Professor in that sort of situation.

"Professor, I…." she began.

"School hasn't started yet Hermione," he reminded her "You can still call me Adam."

"Sorry….Adam, I just wanted to apologise if I put you in an awkward situation after we….after I kissed you….being a Professor I mean."

"It's ok Hermione." he said not looking up.

"I mean it," she said putting a hand over his "I really am sorry."

Adam had tensed the second her hand touched his, seeing his discomfort she quickly withdrew her hand.

"Sorry."

There was a moment's silence before Adam pulled a gold watch out of his pocket, checked the time, collected his papers rather quickly and stood.

"I am afraid I….I must be going. I will see you later." he bowed slightly before walking out of the room.

Hermione turned and watched him leave slightly confused. When she turned back, she saw a piece of paper that had dropped off the table onto the floor. She picked it up and saw that it was different from the rest. It was the picture he had been drawing.

It was a pencil drawing of a woman with long flowing straight hair, she was beautiful. It was wonderfully drawn; it almost looked as though it was a photograph, it was so life like.

She quickly ran to the door and looked each way down the corridor; he was no where in site.

* * *

"I don't like it Severus." said the Headmaster looking at the man on the other side of his desk. "I agree that we need to find out where he has been, but I do not like this course of action."

"What would you recommend then Headmaster?" asked Snape "He seems determined to be even more spoiled and more disrespecting than ever, he did not even acknowledge your presence in the Hospital Wing and every time one of us has asked he just flies of like the cowered that he is."

"I would hardly call Mr Potter a cowered Severus." said Professor McGonagall disapprovingly "I would hardly call facing of against 'You-Know-Who' on several occasions and leading a rescue mission into the Ministries most dangerous department cowardice."

"No, that is just stupidity and attention seeking to suit the pampered upbringing he has had."

"Severus." chastised Dumbledore "Harry does not seek attention and his upbringing was no different to anyone else's other than the fact that like most Muggle-Born students he did not know of his magical heritage."

"Maybe it would make more sense if I asked him in private Albus," suggested Professor McGonagall "As I was the only one he acknowledged in the Hospital Wing it shows that whatever he currently has against you does not extend to me, and I am his Head of House, maybe he will open up to me without others around." She suggested, sending a sideways glance at Severus.

"It is a good idea Minerva but I believe that it would be better if I were present and therefore I must agree with Severus's plan."

"Albus!"

"No Minerva, we have to at least try." sighed Albus.

"Very well Headmaster," said McGonagall stiffly, standing up "But I want no part of it; I can not condone this course of action."

With that she turned and walked out.

* * *

On the other side of the castle, Adam almost ran into the room that Dumbledore had given him.

Dropping the books and parchment on the desk he ran into the replica of the meditation chamber he had made from back at his mansion.

He ran to the alter and dropped to his knees, his expression frantic.

"Please forgive me, I didn't know what I was doing, I was only trying to comfort her….Please forgive me….Please."


	35. CH35 What Is The World Coming To

Chapter 35 – What Is The World Coming To

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:10th August 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – The Hospital Wing_

_Time:Evening_

Harry was walking towards the great hall for dinner; Buffy, Hermione and Ron were with him.

He had already told them that he would go back immediately after dinner, he didn't like the idea of being without Fleur for more than a few hours and they had been apart since they got up yesterday morning as they hadn't had the chance to see each other since, Harry being at Beauxbatons and Fleur catching up on work.

Hermione and Ron had argued of course, Hermione thought he should stay with Dumbledore for his own safety, whereas Ron disagreed and said that if the protections where he was were better he should go back, Hermione kept trying to enforce her point, but then again they did not know what he had been through that summer and he could not risk telling them yet.

They walked around the corner towards the Entrance Hall coming face to face with a nervous looking Professor McGonagall.

"Oh, good evening Harry." she said nervously before quickly walking past them.

"Are you alright Professor?" asked Hermione concerned.

"I'm fine Miss Granger." she replied not stopping.

She disappeared around the corner.

"That was strange." said Buffy.

"Yes it was." agreed Harry before turning suspiciously to the Great Hall doors, he shook his right wrist slightly, as if trying to loosen something in the sleeve before turning back to the others "Don't tell anyone in there about what just happened and don't let anyone think we are suspicious."

"What's there to be suspicious about?" said Ron concerned.

"Think Ron," said Hermione "When have we ever seen McGonagall looking that nervous?"

"Well….never."

"And did you notice the way she only acknowledged Harry until I spoke, and called him by his first name rather then calling him Mr Potter."

"Well I suppose…."

"Something's up Ron." She finished turning to look at Harry he was looking at the doors again "And it has something to do with Harry."

"Have your wands at the ready, don't draw them yet, just have them ready." warned Harry as he plastered a fake smile across his face "Lets see how much of the DA training paid off." With that he led the others into the hall.

* * *

Dumbledore was sitting at the head of the only table in the hall, as there were very few people present they did not require the multiple tables they usually had and it was not fair on the students to sit at one table while the staff sat at another.

The one table had enough space for perhaps a dozen people.

On Dumbledore's right was Professor Snape who was busy with his meal, Dumbledore had never managed to fathom how he could remain quite so calm in this sort of situation, in fact the only person who seemed to be able to rile him was Harry.

At the other end of the table were Tonks and Mundungus both looked particularly uncomfortable at the prospect of what they might have to do if the following encounter played out as they thought it would.

Laughter was heard outside the door and the three students and their female guest walked in.

"Hey Tonks." greeted Harry "Mundungus."

"Wotcha Harry, Hermione, Ron." smiled Tonks.

"Hey." greeted Mundungus shyly.

There had always been a bit of tension between Harry and the con, Dumbledore believed it to be because of the incident with the Dementor's last year.

The four sat themselves down at the far end of the table, Harry next to Tonks with Ron on his other side between him and Snape and Buffy next to Mundungus with Hermione sitting opposite Ron.

If Dumbledore had been looking he would have spotted the strategy to their seating arrangement.

They were positioned furthest away from himself and Professor Snape who were probably the most experienced duellists in the room, Buffy was seated next to Mundungus, the stronger of the two opponents at their end of the table, who of course she could easily overpower leaving Harry to deal with Tonks, neither of them was particularly strong but Harry's larger size gave him the advantage, that left Ron and Hermione blocking his and Severus's line of attacks.

The strategy was sound, it was obvious to the Gryffindor's that if it came down to a fight they would not stand a chance but it was the best arrangement for the situation.

They sat quietly for several minutes, Harry introducing Buffy to Tonks and Mundungus, both were apparently here for security encase of another attack which Harry did personally not believe would happen….at least not one originating from outside.

About half way through the meal Dumbledore decided to ask the question.

"Harry, you never did tell us where you were staying this summer."

"No I didn't." replied Harry without looking up from his plate.

"Answer the Headmasters question Potter." demanded Snape.

"It wasn't a question Snape it was a statement, he said that I didn't tell him and I agreed."

"Harry," continued Dumbledore "I must insist on knowing where you were staying."

"You can insist all you like," replied Harry calmly, still not leaving his meal, aware that the doors were slowly closing "But that does not mean that I am going to tell you."

"Tell us Potter!" demanded Snape jumping to his feet, his hand diving into his robes for his wand.

Snape's movement was like the pistol that started the race, in the blink of an eye everyone in the hall was moving.

There was a loud bang as the doors sealed.

Harry let his wand drop out of his sleeve into his hand and cast a Stunner on Tonks whose hand was half way to her jeans pocket.

Buffy punched Mundungus in the jaw, knocking him unconscious.

Snape and Dumbledore both launched spells at Harry, Dumbledore firing a Disarmer while Snape launched a Full Body Bind, both of which were blocked by Ron and Hermione's shields.

Snape and Dumbledore fired again, this time with more power behind their spells, both spells got through the shields and left Ron and Hermione unconscious or otherwise unable to move.

"Tell us Potter!" Demanded Snape his wand raised threateningly.

"No." he replied calmly, his wand pointed at Snape.

"I DEMAND that you tell us!" bellowed Snape.

"I said no." replied Harry.

Snape fired of a curse at Harry sending his wand flying through the air towards the shut doors.

"WHERE….WERE….YOU….POTTER!"

"He said no." replied Buffy sternly moving around the end of the table next to the now defenceless Harry.

Snape fired off another curse.

Buffy stepped in front of Harry to block the attack.

But the curse never made contact, it hovered in the air between the pairs, trying to force its way towards them yet it remained motionless.

A loud bang was heard against the door.

Then another.

The doors came flying open at the 3rd collision, revealing a very serious looking Guardian.

He calmly walked into the room and raised a hand.

The curse stopped trying to force its way through the air, forming a ball of coloured light.

He tilted his hand forward and the curse flew into the unsuspecting Snape, sending him flying across the room.

Dumbledore flinched.

"Do not even think it Albus." warned Adam before turning to Harry "Go."

He nodded; retrieving his wand he placed his hands inside his robe. Touching the portkey he vanished from the hall.

"I hope you realise what you have just done Adam." sighed Dumbledore.

"I have allowed Harry to go back to a place where he obviously feels safer than he does in your company….what does that tell you Albus?"

"Harry is young, he does not know where he is safest, he can be easily manipulated if he does not have the proper guidance, what would happen if Death Eaters caught him now, we would have no way of knowing whether he was safe or not."

"If Death Eaters caught him then surely your spy would know." countered Adam looking to Snape "I am very disappointed in you Albus, Minerva has told me what you had planned, didn't her idea sound more reasonable to you, didn't it make more sense, but now you have fallen to the level where you are actually attacking your own students….I am leaving….I shall return for the Opening Feast, I hope you learn from this encounter."

He turned and walked out of the hall levitating the other students, Buffy hot on his heals.

Albus sighed and looked at the ground.

This was one of the rare occasions when the headmaster actually looked his age.

* * *

Adam marched quickly out of the hall and out onto the lawn, the dazzling summer sun warming them as they walked.

"Don't think badly of Professor Dumbledore Buffy, from what I have been told he is one of the only few people speaking out against the Dark Lord who now threatens these lands, everyone else refused to believe that he was back until a couple of months ago and the press and Ministry butchered him for it, he is a good man under a lot of pressure….he has to keep Harry safe at all costs."

"Why, what's so special about him?" she asked having to walk quickly to keep pace with him.

"I am afraid that I do not have the time to tell you, ask Ron and Hermione they will be happy to fill you in."

He came to a halt and turned to face the hovering students, he lowered them to the ground with a hand movement before reviving them.

Ron mumbled incoherently before pushing himself up on his elbows, while Hermione who was merely put in a Body Bind got back to her feet.

"Why did you side with Harry over Dumbledore?" she asked.

"Harry! Is he ok?" shouted Ron, remembering what had happened.

"He's fine Ron he's gone, Adam covered his escape."

"Why?" asked Ron, getting to his feet.

"Because although I support Albus's aims, I did not approve of the method that he just used to try to achieve them, I also believe that Harry can decide for himself who is good and who is evil."

"So what are you going to do?" asked Hermione.

"I am going to leave for a while, I need the two of you to take care of Buffy for me, tell her about Voldemort and why Harry is an orphan and the basics about the Wizarding World, I shall return for the Opening Feast."

With that he turned, transformed into a falcon and flew away into the distance, leaving them standing on the lawn, staring after him.


	36. CH36 Unfair Competition

Chapter 36 – Unfair Competition

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:10th August 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:Evening_

Fleur was getting increasingly nervous; it had been hours since Madam Maxime had sent word that Harry had gone to Hogwarts and almost as long since she had heard from him, she did not want to risk contacting him again encase he was with Dumbledore, that old man might not be on their side but he was smart and if Harry looked like he was concentrating on something else he may suspect a telepathic link which would indicate towards either Voldemort or a telepathic species like mated Veela.

"Fleur dear, please stop pacing." asked Delphine, the situation seemed oddly familiar; she wondered how long it would be before Dimitri had to shout at their daughter to get her attention.

"Fleur pacing will not bring him back any faster." she tried again.

"For Merlin's sake Fleur!" cried Dimitri.

Even though Delphine was expecting it she jumped, her husband had a very powerful voice, it was a useful thing to have in politics but it could also frighten the life out of you if you weren't expecting it….or even if you were.

The fire alarm went off signalling an incoming Floo connection before the flame in the hearth flared allowing Harry to get thrown out onto the carpet coughing up soot.

"I hate Floo Travel." muttered Harry as Fleur threw herself at him, engulfing him in a bone crushing hug.

"Arry, Are you ok Arry?"

"If I could breath I would be." he gasped.

"Oh." she said jumping back a bit but leaving her arms on his, not willing to let him go so soon "Sorry, but you're ok; Dumbledore didn't try to keep you there?"

"Oh he did," smiled Harry getting to his feet "He and Snape tried to curse Ron, Hermione, Buffy, she's one of the people who came through the portal, and me when I refused to tell them where I was staying, they had managed to rope in Tonks and Mundungus who looked really uncomfortable at the situation."

"What happened?" asked Dimitri curiously.

"Well I stunned Tonks while Buffy knocked out Mundungus; he's going to have a very painful jaw when he wakes up. Hermione and Ron were both stunned but then Adam, he is the other person who came through the portal stopped the next curse and threw it back at Snape who was knocked unconscious, he then told me to go while he covered Dumbledore and here I am."

"Olympe said you had a vision?" asked Delphine curiously.

"Yes," agreed Harry as he moved to a sofa, Fleur sitting beside him and the Delacour elders taking their usual chairs "My scar felt like it was on fire and then I had these flashes of memory, I saw Adam and Buffy enter the portal and then the portal appear at Hogwarts so I knew I had to get there quickly," he turned to Fleur and cupped one side of her face his voice becoming instantly calming and caring "I'm sorry to have worried you."

Fleur smiled at his concern, she loved the way that he was so worried about how she felt, it was times like this she knew she had made the right choice, she leaned forward and gave him a tender kiss before resting her head on his shoulder and snuggling closer.

"Who exactly were these people in the portal Harry?" asked Dimitri "I'm curious to know what they have to do with you."

"The first was called Buffy Summers; she's American and is a being known as 'The Slayer'."

"The Slayer?" questioned Delphine leaning forward.

"Yes, they are from another world and apparently in her world she fights demons and vampires and even the occasional Hell God."

Delphine nodded slowly "Fascinating, what about the other?"

"His name's Adam, apparently he knew my parents and he's some kind of supreme warrior called 'The Guardian'."

"The Guardian." said Dimitri in shock "I have heard of such a being, but he was supposed to be a myth….no more than legend, it is a shame that we shall not meet, I would relish the opportunity."

As if responding to his statement a screech was heard from outside before a falcon flew in through the open window and dropped a letter on the table before flying back out the window.

Dimitri picked up the letter and looked at the name before handing it to Harry.

There was no address only his name written in an elegant hand.

"Adam can transform into a falcon." informed Harry as he withdrew a knife from his shoe (he had started carrying one after Polly had started to teach them how to use weapons and how to disarm opponents).

Opening the letter he read the contents.

_Harry_

_If you are reading this then it means my messenger found you._

_After you departed I had a talk with Dumbledore and expressed my disapproval of his actions, after which I left leaving Buffy in the care of your friends._

_There are a couple of things I wish to do but after that I would like to come and talk to you and hopefully stay at the same residence as yourself as to alleviate the few concerns I had regarding your whereabouts._

_Do not worry, I will not force you to leave, you obviously prefer it where you are now, and will not stay if you do not want me to I merely wish to be able to say to myself without a doubt that you are safe._

_In addition I offer my services to aid you in the training you are likely undertaking, during the attack I was able to judge your skill level and although you are competent with a wand there is still much for you to learn._

_I hope to see you soon._

_Adam._

Harry handed the message to Fleur who read it rapidly, before looking up concerned.

"You didn't tell us about an attack." she demanded.

"Didn't seem worth mentioning." he replied shrugging.

"Not worth mentioning!" said Fleur in disbelief.

"Well no, no one died, Hermione got hit by a killing curse at long range,,,,"

"What!!"

"She's fine, she's fine, it only skimmed her, Adam got her to the hospital wing in time, she will be right as rain in a few days time. All in all it was a failed attack, they didn't get Buffy who they had come to get and no one was seriously hurt….except Lucius Malfoy who lost an eye to Adam's talons."

"That explains the tension and worry I felt from you several hours ago." sighed Fleur, moving protectively closer to her mate, while handing the letter to her father.

"Well, I don't think there should be any problem with him staying here," commented Dimitri after reading the message "Not that we would have the power to stop him if we wanted to, but I for one would love to meet him, it would be an honour to meet such a legendary warrior."

"On the contrary the honour is mine." replied a voice in French causing all present to spin around drawing their wands.

"My apologize I did not mean to startle you, I just thought it would be quicker than knocking."

"How did you find me?" asked Harry, stowing his wand as the others followed suit "There are Anti-Owl Wards around the Chateau preventing anyone from sending my owls unless they are keyed in."

"I didn't send an owl did I." Adam pointed out, before turning to Dimitri and bowing formally and greeting him in the local tongue "Comte Delacour, it is a pleasure to meet you in person."

"Please call me Dimitri," smiled Dimitri putting on the same air of formality and extending his hand "I never dreamed that I would someday meet The Guardian himself."

Adam accepted the hand and gave another short bow at the compliment.

"May I introduce my wife Delphine,"

"Lady Comtesse." he bowed.

"Guardian." she returned extending her hand "Please call me Delphine."

"As you wish." he smiled back as he kissed the back of her hand "As long as you call me Adam."

"And my eldest daughter Fleur." concluded Dimitri.

"My Lady." he bowed and kissed her hand as well.

"Just Fleur." she blushed, Harry was beginning to wonder if every woman who met Adam was affected the same way, even his mate blushed and he knew that it was impossible for a mated Veela or a Veela's mate to cheat, he wondered if any laws actually applied to Adam.

"Please have a seat." said Dimitri directing him to his chair.

Adam subtly passed by the chair and moved to the sofa on the other side of it, pretending that he had misinterpreted the direction so as not to usurp the Comte's position.

The others returned to their seats.

"What did you want to talk about?" asked Harry as Fleur snuggled against him.

"Firstly I want to ask whether the Dursley's are being taken to court for what they did to you?"

Harry and the others widened their eyes and some of them subtly moved their hands towards their wands.

"How did you know about that?"

"While I was in this dimension last I saw how much the Dursley's hated magic, in addition I can see the evidence of former bruises and burns on your skin, as well as noticing how you are being cautious about using your right arm evidence of recent damage, possibly a break." he explained.

They nodded accepting the explanation although none of them could see how he could possibly see any of that; Harry's bruises were gone thanks to Wizarding Medicine and his bones were completely healed.

"The trial is in four days." explained Dimitri.

"I would like to speak with your barrister before the trial," he explained "Next, what sort of training is Harry receiving?"

"He is getting trained in both Muggle and Magical defence;" began Dimitri "Harry is also getting physical exercise and Occlumency lessons as well as studying for two double EAGLE's at Beauxbatons Academy, one in Flying Instruction and one in Defence Against Attack."

"Impressive," nodded Adam "I assume to fit all that into six weeks you are using a Time Turner or some other form of temporal device."

"There are other sorts of Time Turner?" Harry asked.

Adam reached into his pocket and withdrew a gold watch, opening it Harry and the Delacour's could see lots and lots of hands, some appearing to crawl around the watch while others moving so fast that they appeared stationery.

"Fascinating." commented Dimitri.

"This is a most advanced time piece, Time Turners can only move through time in hours, this one can move through anytime period measure you wish, thusly it is far too dangerous to be uses as anything other than a watch, use it the wrong way and you could destroy life as we know it."

The others looked at the innocent looking watch with expressions ranging from fear to awe.

"I would like to suggest that I take over Harry's Occlumency lessons," continued Adam, replacing the watch "I mean no offence to the current teacher but my mental skills are vastly superior to that of ordinary humans."

"We shall see about that." smirked Viktor from the doorway before moving to shake Adam's hand, the look in his eye was clear evidence that he was looking forward to the challenge "Viktor Krum."

"Adam," he returned smiling "You sound Bulgarian."

"That would be because I am," grinned Viktor "You have a keen ear, may I test to see whether your Occlumens skills are as good."

"Feel free." said Adam, standing back and locking eyes with Viktor.

"Legilimens." called Viktor rapidly drawing and aiming his wand.

Harry and the Delacour's watched in fascination as Viktor stared intently in to Adam's relaxed eyes, focusing, pushing his mental eye towards the mind of his opponent.

This silent duel continued for at least a minute, the evidence of the struggle appearing on the Bulgarian Seekers face while Adam's remained as calm as he had since the beginning.

"My turn." Smiled Adam.

No sooner had the last syllable left Adam's lips when Viktor collapsed to the floor with a gasp of pain; looking shocked as if someone had just stabbed him in the back.

"Viktor!" shouted Dimitri, dropping to his knees beside him while Delphine and Fleur drew their wands on Adam.

"I am ok," panted Viktor getting up "I was just surprised that's all." he turned to Adam "How in Merlin's name did you do that?"

"While you were trying to access my mind I slipped into yours, I remained quiet and positioned myself near your conscious thoughts, when you turned your Occlumency shields up I went unnoticed because of my lack of movement, when I finished speaking I moved forward bypassing your memories and did the mental equivalent of grabbing you by the throat."

Viktor nodded his understanding before turning to Harry.

"Let him teach you Harry, his skill is much greater than my own, his Occlumency shield was impenetrable and his Legilimens skills are phenomenal, especially as he did not even need a wand to enter my thoughts."

Harry nodded.

They all returned to there seats and Adam continued.

"Lastly I would like to know….how long you and Fleur have been mated?"

"How did you know they were mated?" asked Dimitri defensively.

"I can see the link connecting the two of them, but the most obviously is the way that they almost sigh into each others touches."

Harry and Fleur both blushed as elder Delacour's and Viktor tried not to laugh.

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:11th August 2001 AD_

_Country:France – Pic Du Thaume_

_Location:Beauxbatons Academy Of Magic_

_Time:Evening_

The next day Harry, or rather Daniel was back at Beauxbatons, Olympe had explained his absence from classes as a close friend falling suddenly ill and him having to rush of to see if he could assist.

He managed to get back to the Academy in time to catch the end of dinner; luckily he was able to think on his feet as several students inquired about his friend before Olympe had had the chance to explain his alibi to him.

During dinner Harry felt particularly nervous and he wasn't entirely sure why, he had caught the 'Nets' whispering several times and they seemed to coincidentally stop whenever he looked in their direction, he had also noticed Colleen sending him looks as well as very slowly licking the food off her fork whenever she new he was looking.

After dinner had finished he headed very promptly to his office, he had just finished making a Floo call when he heard a knocking at the door, ending the connection he walked over to the door and opened it, nearly falling over at the sight that greeted him.

Standing before him, leaning against the door frame dressed in a black, extremely low cut dress was Colleen.

The look on her face was one of pure seduction and it was quite frankly….terrifying.

"Good evening professor." she purred.

Harry mentally gulped as he tried to remain as professional as possible.

"What can I do for you Colleen?" he replied as calmly as he could, deciding that that probably wasn't the best phrasing for that question.

She smiled and walk around him into his office.

She walked very slowly towards his desk, swinging her hips as she went.

As she reached it she turned to him slowly with that predatory glint in her eye.

"What a nice office you have Sir." she smiled, running her delicate hand along the edge of the carved desk.

"Yes it is." he nodded, attempting to keep his expression as neutral as possible as he answered.

She prowled her way back to him.

"There's no need to be so formal Sir, I won't tell anyone."

Harry started backing up as the predatory glint got stronger.

"Is something wrong Sir?" she asked innocently while maintaining her advance.

"I already have a girlfriend." he explained his voice at least an octave higher than usual "And you are my student."

"Well," she smiled as he hit the wall and she moved in for the kill "We won't let that stand in our way," she reached one hand up and began to undo the first button of his robe "Will we?"

There was a flash of light as a spell hit Colleen in the small of the back; a look of shock crossed her face before she slumped to the floor.

"Oh thank God." Harry breathed closing his eyes and leaning his head back against the wall.

"Don't thank him." answered a familiar voice.

"Thank us."

Harry's eyes shot open, he really hoped that was not who he thought it was….he couldn't be that unlucky.

He turned his eyes in the direction of the voice….he was that unlucky.

Standing around the doorway was Violette, Ninette, Lysette and Florette; all dressed in what could only be described as every man's….every OTHER mans schoolgirl fantasy.

They were all wearing, white shirts that were about five sizes to small and that were tied beneath their braless chests, they were wearing skirts that barely reached their thighs, black stockings that Harry suspected were accompanied by suspenders, ties worm loosely around the undone neck's of the shirts and high healed shoes.

"Holly mother of God." whispered Harry to himself as he began backing up towards his desk.

"Nothing wrong is there Sir." smiled Violette innocently "You seem nervous."

No kidding was he nervous, he had four sexually aroused girls all dressed to be the very picture of a man's fantasy approaching him, he would rather face Voldemort.

What made this situation worse was that these four worked as a pack, they had already managed to surround him, and while Violette approached him the others had moved between him, the door, fireplace and stairs.

He was completely and utterly trapped.

Violette pushed him up against his desk and leaned into him, causing him to have to lean back as far as he could while she pushed her body into his.

"Don't worry Sir." She ran her hand down towards his trousers "There are only four of us, I am sure that won't cause you too much trouble."

A flash of red light came from behind her and there was the sound of a body hitting the floor.

"Three." growled an irritated voice.

They all spun around to see a seriously riled looking Colleen pointing her wand at Lysette and a fireball at Ninette, Florette lay unconscious at her feet.

"How can you be awake, you were hit by three stunners?" glared Lysette.

"I'm part Veela you idiot; not all spells affect me the same way they WILL be affecting you." she threatened.

In a flash of movement Lysette and Ninette went for their wands and all hell broke loose.

Colleen launched attacks against both the girls, using both her wand and fire.

While this was going on Violette grabbed Harry by the collar and threw him to the floor, straddling his waist, planning on taking full advantage of the distraction provided.

"Don't worry Professor; I will make sure you enjoy yourself." she grinned before lowering her mouth towards his.

"Is this a private party or can anyone join?"

They all spun around towards the source of the voice.

Standing quite calmly at the foot of the stairs was his mate with an amused smile on her face.

"Oh thank goodness." he sighed in English, he was too relieved to worry about getting the language right.

"Fleur!" exclaimed Colleen, still sitting on Lysette, her hands around her wind pipe.

Fleur turned to the other Veela.

"Colleen, how have you been?"

"F….fine, yourself?" she asked uncertainly, not sure why the older Veela was here.

"Well, thank you. You may wish to loosen your grip slightly Colleen….Lysette's turning blue."

It was then that comprehension dawned on Violette. She looked to Fleur then to Harry (still underneath her) and then back to Fleur.

"No….no, that's not fair."

"Good to see you to Violette." Fleur smiled.

"Not her, anyone else just not her." she pleaded, sitting up defeated.

"Oh Merlin's beard." Exclaimed Colleen as she caught on.

"Why don't you three revive your friends and go to bed, I would like a word with Professor Radcliffe."

The trio slowly traipsed out of Harry's chambers, levitating the others beside them, leaving a very relieved professor.

No sooner had Fleur closed the door that Harry collapsed into his chair.

"Thank God….I thought I'd had it then." he sighed, almost panting out his relief as he turned to Fleur who looked like she was trying to suppress a laugh.

"Pray tell me what is so funny….if you had responded to my call any later Violette would have got what she wanted and who knows what that might have done to the bond."

"I know Arry," she giggled "But the scene when I entered the room was so funny I hahaha….I can't help myself."

"Oh yes absolutely hilarious I'm sure." sighed Harry sarcastically as Fleur walked over to him and sat in his lap "The sight of two girls trying to strangle each other, two more unconscious and a forth straddling my body about to have her wicked way with me and four of said girls were wearing what can barely be described as a school uniform while the other was wearing a dress that was so low cut it should have been illegal, a real comic moment that was."

Fleur nodded as she pushed her lips as hard together as possible to avoid laughing again.

She started to shake before bursting out laughing again, almost crying out her amusement into Harry's shoulder as he sighed and rubbed his eyes.

"I need to go to bed, but first I think I need to teach you not to laugh at a teacher."

"Yes please Professor."


	37. CH37 Surprises From The Dock

Chapter 37 – Surprises From The Dock

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:14th August 2001 AD_

_Country:London_

_Location:The High Court_

_Time:Morning_

In the main entrance of the Courtrooms a head poked its way around the edge of the ladies toilets.

Looking left and right it turned and whispered something back into the room.

Moment's later four people emerged unnoticed; the first was a tall gentleman whose black hair and slightly darker skin tone suggested that he was originally from warmer climes; the second was a lady who was several inches shorter than the man who was presumably her husband, she had curly red hair and brown eyes which were both reflected in the third member of the group who looked like a younger version of the lady. The last member of the group was a boy who looked to be around sixteen years of age; he had scruffy black hair, green eyes, a lightning shaped scar on his forehead and looked decidedly nervous, even with the younger lady hanging on his arm.

The group quickly went through the formality of signing in and headed of to where they had been told their courtroom was.

They had been asked to wait outside until they were called for evidence as they had been very prompt in their arrival.

They watched as many people entered the courtroom, Harry recognised several of the residents of Pivet Drive and the surrounding area most of whom either nodded, winked, smiled or wished him luck as they passed.

A couple of people he didn't recognise including a man dressed awkwardly, which was a pretty good guarantee that he was a wizard, and a lady with chestnut coloured hair wearing a slightly mismatched business suit and skirt, Harry smiled in comprehension as she passed though she did not look in his direction.

They had a brief discussion with the Barrister for the Prosecution who he had been told was named Lex when he arrived, Dimitri had employed him personally because he was well regarded as the best Wizarding lawyer with Muggle knowledge that money could buy.

He explained the way that the trial would play out, he told them that Harry would be the 1st witness, then Dimitri and Delphine going by the names of Frank and Jackie Winters would present their slightly altered evidence about how Harry came to be in their care, then Adam was going to present speak, following that a Gringotts human representative would present some evidence that the lawyer thought it best not to reveal to Harry until he was being question in favour of a realistic reaction when he was told, Harry didn't like the sound of this much but as it would assist in sending the Dursley's down and as they had given a good reason not for telling him he agreed, the barrister then asked Harry to give April (Fleur) his wand just encase his reaction to that particular bit of evidence was a bit strong, there were already magic dampeners around the courtroom but pulling out a wand even one that had been dampened would cause problems.

After he left they saw the lawyer for the defence enter, then Vernon was escorted in, Vernon sent Harry a confident smile which Harry returned while wondering what the defence was going to try and do.

Shortly after that Petunia and Dudley walked into sight, they had both apparently been released on bail, according to Harry's lawyer Vernon had volunteered to stay incarcerated so as not to stretch their faltering bank balance….Yeah right, it was probably just to make them look poorer and to make Vernon appear like more of a victim. No sooner had Petunia seen Harry than she headed straight for him.

Harry turned his head slightly and mouthed 'Do nothing' to the Delacour elders who both nodded before Dimitri sent a look in the direction of the assistant barrister for the Crown who along with two other barristers from other cases moved into hearing range.

April protectively gripped Harry's arm tighter while he tried to calm her by sending comforting words back along their link.

"How can you do this to us!" starter Petunia as soon as she reached him "After all we have done for you. Taking you into our home, feeding you, giving you Dudley's second bedroom and then you go and do a thing like this, you ungrateful child!"

"Ungrateful!" exclaimed April, unable to control herself "You locked him in a cupboard for eleven years, he got 2nd hand clothes and you forced him to do all your housework while you whale of a son got two bedrooms, the best clothes you could buy and enough presents for over two dozen children!"

Petunia looked taken back at April's bluntness but quickly recovered.

"How DARE you talk to me that way you insolent girl….we didn't have to take the freak into our house, we didn't have to spend our already tight bank balance on him….he's a waste of space who belongs on the streets!"

With that she turned and walked into the courtroom.

"How dare you do this to dad!" threatened Dudley as he came to stand in front of Harry "You will pay for this, dad always wins, he's got the best lawyers in the country working for him, you don't stand a chance, your wand won't save you now!"

Harry jumped on Dudley's mistake, manipulating the wording to suit his meaning.

"I don't need to try to bribe for a guilty verdict Dudley, I will win because you and your mother and father are guilty, and I don't know what your sexual preferences are but I don't swing that way."

Dudley turned puce "Why you little." Dudley's fist collided hard with Harry's head sending him tumbling back into the Delacour's.

Dudley tried to throw himself at Harry but Dimitri's body and the security guards that had very rapidly responded to the situation prevented him.

"I'll get you for this Potter, I'll get you!" he yelled as he was dragged of to the cells.

"What is going on," said Petunia as she emerged from the court to investigate the noise "Dudder's!" she cried as she saw her son being taken away.

Her attention turned to Harry and advanced on him.

"What did you do to my son!" she screamed rising an arm to strike him across the face.

She brought her arm down forcefully across Harry's face, a large crack echoed around the hall as her hand made contact with his face.

It took less than a second for more security guards to arrest her and lead her of after her son.

As soon as they were out of site Harry let out a very quiet.

"Ouch."

Bringing his hand to the place where Petunia's hand had hit.

"Are you alright Harry?" asked April, moving in front of him to get a look at the damage.

His left cheek was bright red from the slap but luckily that was all, the results from Dudley's punch were another thing all together, Harry's nose was beginning to bleed and the bridge of his nose was very rapidly turning a very nice shade of purple.

"I'll live." he nodded briefly touching his nose and deciding not to try that again instead bringing a tissue to his nose.

"Are you ok Mr Potter?" asked their barrister as he reached them, the other two remained where they were so as not to compromise the evidence they had just witnessed by talking to the prosecution "That looked like a mighty hard punch."

"I've had worse this summer, though I must admit I never thought Petunia would have such an arm on her."

Just a few minutes later they were called in and the trial started, Harry and the barrister were seated in the Prosecution benches, April was seated just being in the public seat, Dimitri, Delphine and a late arriving Adam were not allowed in court at the same time as they were giving evidence.

On the opposing side of the court room the Defence barrister was sitting alone looking decidedly in need of a drink, thinking he was going to have an easy case and then discovering that two of your three clients have just been rearrested for assaulting the prosecution tended to drive you in the direction of an industrial sized headache.

Vernon on the other hand was looking on from the dock; his expressions kept changing from one of confusion as he searched the courtroom for his wife and child who both technically should have been in the dock with him, to an evil and very confident grin whenever he looked in the direction of Harry….what had he got planned?

In short order the judge (named Ordinis) entered and began the trial, they all seated themselves as he began.

"According to my notes we should have three defendants, I can only see one, where are the others?"

"Your Honour," began the Court Room Clerk "They were rearrested just ten minutes ago for assaulting the prosecution."

Harry saw Vernon flinch, trying very hard not to call out.

The judge turned to Harry's barrister.

"I am guessing you wish to use this as evidence of a guilty verdict."

"Yes my Lord." replied Lex "I shall be calling two extra witnesses who are fellow barristers and including additional testimony from my client and his current guardians, with your leave of course Your Honour."

The charges against the defendants were then read out; they ranged from child neglect, to assault and battery.

The judge gave Barrister Lex the go ahead to begin the case for the crown, Lex called Harry as his first witness and after being sworn in he began questioning.

"Mr Potter, can you give us a brief history of your life with the Dursley's, starting from how you came to be with them?"

"Well, I came to the Dursley's when I was one, my parents had so I was told been killed in a car crash, since then I have lived with the Dursley's except when at school and this last summer."

"Could you describe your room to us please?"

"Well for the first eleven years of my life I lived in the cupboard under the stairs," gasps could be heard from the public seats "After that, for some reason I never figured out, they allowed me to live in Dudley's second bedroom, though it was just as well as my school trunk would have made the cupboard very cramped."

"His second." questioned Lex, Harry could tell this man was smart, he was drawing on all the things that the Dursley's would not want the court to hear "He had two?"

"Yes, he had one which he slept in and another for all the toys and other stuff he had, though he never actually went into to it as far as I can remember, I was merely allowed to reside in his room as it was always referred to as his."

"What was the room like?"

"Well it was square; there was a wardrobe a bookcase and a bed, all falling to bits."

"What about the decorating?"

"The paint was pealing from the walls, there wasn't a carpet, just splintering floorboards."

"And the rest of the house was like this as well, presumably due to the Dursley's weak financial situation."

"No, the rest of the house was immaculate, mainly because I spent all my time keeping it that way."

"Your Honour I submit evidence packs A1 to D3 showing picture comparisons between Mr Dursley's Second Bedroom and the rest of the house including the cupboard under the stairs, Mr Potter can you tell us about how you cleaned and the other sort of jobs you did?"

"Well I did the vacuuming, dusting, polishing, the bathrooms, the kitchen, the lounge, the bedrooms, I painted and wallpapered, I scrubbed the floors, did the dishes, cooked breakfast every morning and sometimes lunch and dinner as well, then moving outside there was the patio and wall which I built, the lawn which I mowed, the flowerbeds that I planted and won the Dursley's several competitions of which I got no credit, the fences which I painted, the hedges that I trimmed, then there is the guttering, the roof tiles…."

"Thank you Mr Potter, I think we have got the idea, how much pocket money did you get for doing so many jobs?"

"Pocket money?" asked Harry trying his hardest not to burst out laughing though the struggle was evident on his face "I never got any pocket money, the Dursley's forced me to do all the work as payment for taking me in out of 'the goodness of their hearts', allowing me to eat a few of the leftovers from meals and being allowed to wear my cousins old and worn clothes which were all five sizes too big."

"Did they never buy you your own clothes?"

Harry thought for a second before replying.

"Twice, when I started Infant and Primary School, I remember they were most put out at the time even though they only brought me second hand uniforms."

"Going back a question, how much of the work did your cousin or your aunt and uncle do around the house and how much pocket money did your cousin get?"

"My cousin got twenty pounds every week and he did absolutely no house work, he found the very though of it degrading, as for my….'guardians'….they also did very little, my aunt did do most of the dinners and lunches if they were cooked but other than that none at all."

"None at all," said the Barrister turning to the court "We have heard how not only did the Dursley's mistreat and abuse their guardianship over Mr Potter, they also turned him into a slave, but it gets worse," he turned back to Harry "Can you tell the court about the time when you broke your arm?"

"Well the incident occurred before I attended Secondary School, Dudley hit me with a fire poker, I can't recall a reason for him to do so, I think he did it because he enjoyed it…."

"Objection Your Honour." called the Defence Barrister

"Overruled, he is entitled to his opinion, continue Mr Potter."

"Yes Your Honour, after my arm was broken the Dursley's refused to take me to hospital for over a week, my bone started to heal wrongly, they had to undo what had already healed before it could start to heal properly and they still made me to the housework even though I was injured and wearing a cast."

"Objection," cried the Defence again "This was over six years ago, the prosecution can not prove any of this."

"We have Mr Potter's medical records and written testimony from the Doctor's that treated him."

The barrister for the Defence sighed and sat back down.

"Objection withdrawn."

"Mr Potter, did the Dursley's do you any other kind of physical or psychological damage?"

"Well, during my entire time they always called me a freak, even more so since I went to Boarding School, they accused me of bringing my freakish ways into there house….actually, now I think of it….I don't think they ever called me by my name while I lived there, they just called me 'Boy' or 'Freak'."

"What about physical damage."

"Well, other than being hit by Dudley with the fire poker, I have been hit several times with frying pans by my Uncle as well as being 'accidentally' tripped, not to mention the amount of times that Dudley and his gang have beaten me up."

"Objection your Honour," tried the Defence again "The Prosecution can not prove this."

"Your Honour," countered Lex "Can I make the court aware of the separate prosecutions being pressed by no less than thirteen other families of Little Winging against Dudley Dursley and three other juveniles, while I am sure the Prosecution will remind me that the trial is not yet over I have managed to obtain duplicates of the photo evidence, witness testimonies and lie detector test results, all of which state that Dudley Dursley is the leader of said gang and he along with one other is the main perpetrator of the injuries sustained by child victims all of whom are younger and physically weaker than Dudley Dursley, including one female victim who was no more than ten years of age."

The amount of quite chatter coming from the public seating was increasing, Harry could tell they were firmly on his side, and from some of the looks on the faces on the jury, so were they.

"Now as I previously stated, that trial is not yet concluded but I will just point out that the victims who have come forward, not including the prosecuting thirteen, number eight, making no less than twenty one victims, not including those families that have more than one victim in them and accompanying them are ten witness testimonies by unaffected persons."

Harry had a quick look at the Defence barrister, the look on his face almost made Harry feel sorry for him.

"Evidence packs D4 through K5," finished Harry's barrister before turning back to Harry "Please continue Mr Potter, what about this summer?"

"This summer was the worst, no sooner had I put my trunk down my Uncle and Dudley attacked me."

"What did they do to you?"

"They spent what must have been at least an hour punching, kicking, beating and burning me."

"What did they do when they had finished?"

"They locked the door and left me in my room for the next five days with no food or water until I managed to escape."

"But that was not all was it Mr Potter?"

"No, I also started coming down with flu."

That was a little bit of a lie, but if he had told them that he had come to the point of death with the flu he wouldn't have been able to get up or escape, which was what the Delacour's were going to tell the court.

"When they went out one evening I managed to unlock the door by reaching through the cat flap that they used to feed me and get to the phone to contact the people I am currently staying with, I managed to reach the door and open it before I collapsed against the door frame, my friends came and found me where I had passed out. They got me into their car and collected my school trunk, from there I was taken back to their house and my injuries were treated and thanks to the speed at which my current host contacted a Doctor I am still here and am now almost fully recovered except for the scarring, burns and my healing arm and skull."

"Thank you Mr Potter, now can you explain to us what happened outside the courtroom earlier."

"Well, I was waiting outside when Petunia and Dudley came up to us and started shouting at me for bringing them here, saying how ungrateful I was to them for the way they had treated me, then Petunia walked into the court and Dudley started threatening me, saying how I had no chance of winning and then he said that 'my wand wouldn't save me', I interpreted that as him suggesting that I would try to bribe Your Honour or the Jury by offering myself err….myself…. myself sexually, to which I said that we would win because Vernon was guilty and that I didn't know about Dudley but I was not in the habit of having err….of being err….intimate….with other men."

"What did he do then?"

"He punched me to the ground, luckily security stopped him doing more, but no sooner had that happened when Petunia came back out looking for Dudley, she saw him being dragged away and automatically assumed it was me, she came up to me and slapped me before she too was taken by security."

"Thank you Mr. Potter, no more questions at this time Your Honour, though I reserve the right to recall this witness after additional testimony has been provided by other witnesses."

"Understood," nodded Judge Ordinis "Defence, your witness."

"Thank you Your Honour," nodded the Defence barrister getting to his feet "Mr Potter, or may I call you Harry?"

"Harry is fine."

"Thank you. Harry, the photographic evidence submitted by the prosecution stated that you had received a broken arm, a cracked skull, burns to your right arm and hand and multiple heavy bruises, now with the exception of the bruises none of those injuries would have healed in the three weeks between the incident and today, and yet you show no signs of any of these injuries or any of the medical treatment required to heal them, can you account for that?"

Harry forced himself not to smile, they had expected that question. He shrugged off his jacket and undid the buttons of his shirt sleeve, rolling it up a thin cast was revealed, he then held up the palm of his other hand to reveal the damaged skin from the lamp burns.

"I requested that the doctor who was treating me only gave me a thin cast so I could wear my suit over the top of it and having it engulfing my hand would have been almost impossible to put the suit on, as the break was clean he agreed….reluctantly, the same applies to my burned hand. The cracked skull did not require bandaging."

Harry visibly saw the barrister deflate; he got the feeling that the barrister knew that he had just set the tone for this line of questioning.

"Fair enough, can you tell the court a little about what happened on your eleventh birthday?"

_Oh that's clever _Thought Harry, _He's trying to trick me into saying something about magic._

"Well, that was when I first got my letter about Hogwarts,"

"Hogwarts is the school you attend?"

"Yes, it's a private very exclusive boarding school; my entry was so I was told part of a legacy scholarship my parents left me."

"I see, can you tell us how you learned about your scholarship and your school?"

"Well, first a letter came for me in the post, which in itself was very unusual, my relatives refused to let me read it and threw it in the fire, more letters came and they burnt those as well."

"We don't need to hear about that Harry just how you learnt about the school."

"Objection," called Lex "The Defence asks a question and then only wants the pieces that suit their case."

"Sustained," agreed the judge "You asked a question, you must let the witness answer it freely."

"Yes Your Honour," sighed the Defence before turning back to Harry "Please continue."

"Well this kept happening, until we got multiple letters a day, but every time I tried to read one my uncle would tear it away from me. He eventually took all of us to this little house that was only accessible by boat, but apparently Hogwarts is very serious about its pupils and if they don't get replies from letters they actually send someone to find out what has happened, a member of the schools staff, a very large man named Hagrid who is the site manager and grounds man, as well as the Animal Biology Professor found out where we had gone and rowed out after us. He told me about the school, that both my parents had gone there and that they had set it up so that I could go there as well."

"Then what happened?" asked the Defence Barrister

"Well Vernon refused to let me go and actually threatened Hagrid with a gun, I don't think he is even allowed to own a gun, but Hagrid didn't give up and I left with him. He took me shopping for all the books and equipment I would need, my parents I discovered had left some money for me in a bank account that they had not told the Dursley's about in fear that they would try to claim the money for themselves, from there he took me to the station and I took the train to School."

"So what you are saying is that your Uncle tried to defend you against a possibly hostile enemy, even risking going to prison by being in the possession of an unlicensed gun and he did it entirely in your interests."

"No," countered Harry "What I am saying is; not only did he threaten the man who came to offer me a once in a life time opportunity, but he did so with an unlicensed gun and allowed me to leave with a stranger who, although he turned out to be who he said he was, could potentially have been dangerous."

Further mumblings were heard from the public, the Defence Barrister wasn't doing too well and he knew it.

"Harry, is there anything unusual about your school?"

"I'm not sure I follow?" Harry replied, thinking he new were this was heading, they hadn't planned on this, he would have to think on his feet.

"Well for example; what do they teach you?"

"I not quite sure I see what you are getting at, if you mean what lessons do I take then I would say that they are pretty ordinary with a couple of slightly my unusual classes but nothing overly strange."

"Can you give us an example?" pressed the Barrister.

"Well they teach; history, plant biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, astronomy. Then a couple of odd ones like Ancient Languages and wildlife appreciation and care, though given the state of the environment that last one seems rather relevant."

"Your Honour," called Lex "What does this line of inquiry have to do with my client and his guardians."

"Sustained, I can not see the relevance in this line of questioning Defence, please come to the point or terminate this line of questioning."

"Yes Your Honour, no further questions at this time."

_Nicely done Arry _said Fleur in his head.

"Defence, have you any further questions?"

"No you honour but I will tell the court now that one of my witnesses is a Professor at Hogwarts whom I will ask to confirm all that my client has just said as well as giving a quick summary of Mr Potter's behaviour and hard working attitude at school."

_A professor! But who….oh, of course Adam, that's what he wanted to talk to Lex about before the trial._

"Please step down Mr Potter." said the Judge.

Harry was then escorted out of the courtroom.

He waited there for about an hour as the Dursley's were interrogated, then Adam and the Delacour's were called to give evidence and then finally the Gringotts representative.

The Courtroom Clerk called him back in at he resumed his previous position.

Looking around he got the feeling that something important was about to be revealed; Vernon, Petunia and Dudley (who had obviously been released) were looking nervously at him from the dock, as was their barrister from the benches, looking over to the public seats he could also see the slightly worried look on Fleur's face.

"Mr Potter, your parent's bank has uncovered some interesting facts that we believe you are not aware of that your guardians should have told you."

"….Yes" said Harry slowly.

"The first matter relates directly to your treatment at their hands. Earlier you told the court that you did virtually all the house work while the rest of the family did close to nothing, and that your cousin got a two rooms, pocket money and expensive clothes while you just got hand-me-downs and a dirty old room."

"Yes." Harry nodded.

"Are you aware of any monetary agreements regarding your parents and the Dursley's?"

"Not that I know of."

"Well it turns out that there were several arrangements that were made in the unlikely event that you ended up with you current 'guardians'."

Anger began to build inside Harry as he realised what he was being told.

"Are….are you saying that…they got….PAID….to look after me?"

"Yes Mr Potter, I am. Every month your parent's bank gave the Dursley's £500 for your keep, an additional £100 a month for clothing and other needs and a cash lump some of £1000 every new school year to buy you the equipment and school uniform you would need."

Harry was almost fuming; his anger was on the verge of breaking out.

"So all that time they were claiming that they were struggling to feed me, all those times they said that they were using up precious incoming to have me living there and that they were doing it out of the 'goodness of their hearts' they were in fact spending an extra what….SEVEN THOUSAND POUNDS a year on themselves!"

"Yes, that is correct, until you started school then they got £8,200 a year, less than £100 of which I would guess you actually got."

Harry was glaring daggers at the dock; if the Dursley's had looked up he would have burnt out their optic nerves.

"But it gets worse Mr Potter." continued Lex carefully, very aware of how angry Harry had got "Your parents bank has also been looking through your parents estate and it appears that the Dursley's do not own the house they currently live in….you do."

"WHAT!!" Harry roared, spinning on the Dursley's "Vernon, you are the greediest, fattest, most worthless man I have ever had the misfortune to know!!!"

"Mr. Potter control yourself!" ordered the judge reclaiming his gavel from where it had fallen on the floor after the shock of Harry's reaction "I will forgive that outburst as I think I would probably have done the same but please control yourself in future."

Harry closed his eyes and took several deep breaths, while Fleur sent calming thoughts down the link.

"My apologies Your Honour."

The judge nodded before motioning for Lex to continue

"You have just heard how the Dursley's not only used the massive amount of £110,800 for their own benefit while Mr Potter got barely anything, but they also did so in his own house, a house which I will add had electricity and water paid for out of Mr Potter's account and which they haven't paid rent on since his parents died."

If there had been any disagreement at all from the public or the jury that the Dursley's were innocent, there most certainly wasn't now.

"That completes the case for the Prosecution Your Honour, no further witnesses."

"Defence, have you anything further to add to your case?" asked the judge.

"No Your Honour," sighed the Barrister, defeated "The Defence rests."

"Court is adjourned to allow the jury to reach a verdict." said the judge standing up.

"All rise." Called the Courtroom Clerk as the judge left his seat followed by everyone else.

Harry stepped down and went over to the Prosecution benches, where April and her parents greeted him.

"You did wonderfully Harry," smiled April as she hugged him "There is no way that they can wriggle there way out of this."

"I agree Mr Potter," smiled Lex "All in all this has been one of the easiest court battles I have ever participated in."

"Maybe," Harry smiled cautiously "But I personally wont believe it until I here the words guilty attached to their names."

* * *

It didn't take the jury very long to reach a verdict, they all re-entered the Court and sat at the Prosecution benches while the jury spokesman stood. 

"Members of the jury," began the Clerk "On the charges of assault and slander, how do you find the Defendant Dudley Dursley?"

April squeezed Harry's hand tightly; if anything she seemed more nervous than him.

"Guilty."

A tiny smile crept onto Harry's lips

"On the charges of child neglect, child abuse and slander, how do you find the Defendant Petunia Dursley?"

"Guilty."

The smile grew from a line into an excited expression.

"And on the charges of child neglect, child abuse and slander, how do you find the Defendant Vernon Dursley?"

"Guilty."

There were many sounds of cheers coming from the public seats.

"Were the verdicts unanimous?" finished the Clerk.

"They were."

Everyone's attention turned to the judge for sentencing.

"Dudley Dursley, for your crimes you shall receive three and a half years in a Juvenile Detention Centre, along with eighty hours community service and six months of therapy, Vernon and Petunia Dursley, you shall each receive twenty five years imprisonment for your crimes, as well as being forced to pay back all the money that you were given by the Potters over the years as well as paying the rent for that period to Mr Potter. As I am certain that this will mean you are unable to pay your property shall be given to Mr Potter in payment."

The sentencing had obviously pushed Vernon just that tiniest bit to far as he finally decided to let the bomb of a yelling he had been building explode.

"No! You can't do this to us, he's a freak, him and all his over wizard people, he's tricked you, he's cast a spell on you of something, we're innocent I tell you, innocent!"

The courtroom was utterly silent when Vernon finished, it had taken him less than ten seconds for him to loose whatever credibility he had had and as he realised it his face turned white as a sheet. He had just shouted to the world what he had been trying to hide for fifteen years.

"Take the prisoners down." ordered the judge, breaking the silence before turning to Harry "Mr Potter, I hope your life only gets better from this point on."

"As do I." he smiled back.

"All rise." Came the order as Judge Ordinis left the court.

As the court began to empty

April hugged him tightly as the courtroom began to empty.

"You did it Harry, you did it, your free."

"Yes," he smiled "Yes I am."

He could not quite believing what had just happened, but he didn't have much time to think about it as almost the entire population of the public benches came forward to congratulate and thank him for getting rid of the Dursley's once and for all.

After what seemed like an eternity the last person left the courtroom allowing the group to leave, Harry thanked Lex repeatedly before finally heading out, the Barrister was still amazed that the trial only took one day as he was expecting at least a week, one day trials were virtually unheard of.

When they finally went out into the hall outside the courtroom it was almost deserted, most of the public having left already, they began heading back towards their portkey point when Harry spotted the chestnut haired lady he had seen at the beginning of the trial leaning against the wall, reading a newspaper, as he past her he came to a stop the other turned to look at him curiously.

Not looking at the woman Harry smiled and said.

"Next time Tonks you might want to come up with a better disguise."

She turned to him looking shocked.

"How did you know it was me?" she demanded.

"Four things; firstly that sort of blouse does not require a tie, secondly anyone wearing a skirt that short is definitely going to be more flirty and will not normally hang around in courtrooms, thirdly not many women in business suits eat sweats that they have stored in their pockets, especially not the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes variety and lastly your newspaper is upside down." He finished with a grin.

Tonks looked at her newspaper before grinding her teeth at herself "Oh bbbbbbottle tops."

"Very restrained of you Tonks, better luck next time." he smiled "Does Dumbledore know you are here?"

"The Order does, I was watching the Dursley's encase you or you hosts came back," she said glancing at the disguised forms of Dimitri and Delphine "I overheard a couple of your neighbours talking about your relatives being in court today for child abuse, I sent a message Patronus back to Headquarters, I didn't have time to send more messages as court was about to begin and the courtrooms are protected by Magic Prevention Wards."

"I know that is why my hosts held onto my wand, to make sure I didn't make myself look like an idiot and try to cast a spell."

Remembering that she still had his wand April pulled his wand out of her top and handed it back to him.

"Goodbye Tonks." He finished before turning and beginning to walk off, but he stopped after about two steps and turning back to her "Oh and I trust you know that I am not going with you back to Dumbledore."

"Harry, you must, for your own safety." She pleaded.

"Do you really want to try to force me Tonks; after all, it is one versus four."

Tonks observed the others all slowly moving their hands to their pockets.

"You can't do magic Harry, you will be expelled if you do!"

"No I wont, I am sixteen, which means I can cast spells freely, the only think I would get in trouble for would be doing magic in front of Muggles, but as an Auror I am sure you know a few good memory spells."

"But its not safe Harry, you haven't even finished Hogwarts yet, how are we supposed to protect you if we don't know where you are?"

"Other than our dear Headmaster I am the only person to have fought Voldemort and lived, in fact I have done so more often the Dumbledore has, at my count it is up to six times now, he has only faced him twice and on one of those occasions I had already virtually defeated him."

"When was that?" asked Tonks puzzled, it annoyed Harry that even Aurors flinched at Voldemort's name.

"My first year at Hogwarts, Voldemort was inhabiting the body of the DADA professor and was trying to steal the Philosophers Stone, I faced him and luckily survived until Dumbledore arrived."

"I didn't know that." Said Tonks amazed.

"I get the feeling there are quite a few things about my life the Headmaster hasn't told anyone, but I am not surprised, after all, I didn't even know how my parents had really died or that Magic even existed until I started Hogwarts, and lets not forget the fact that he left me with the Dursley's all those years, I wonder if he actually knew of the treatment I underwent. All he wants is to use me as a pawn in his game of chess."

Tonks looked at him stunned, obviously rethinking her opinion of the Headmaster

"And going back to the point of my defence, I think it is fairly obvious that I can handle myself; I have duelled Death Eaters, faced Trolls, Acromantula's, Basilisks, Dragons, fought off attacks by dozens of Dementors and managed to duel Voldemort and live….you lot can't even hear Voldemort's name without flinching….yeah like that."

"We only wants to protect you Harry, how can we do that if we can't even find you?"

"The fact that you can't find him indicates that he is already a lot safer than he was formerly." replied Adam as he exited the courtroom with Lex.

"But….but…."

"But what Miss Tonks, how do you plan to convince Harry to come back with you?"

Tonks looked at each of the group in turn before sighing and returning her gaze to Harry.

"Don't get hurt."

Harry smiled and continued on towards their destination with the others following on behind.

Tonks shook her head and began walking towards the Main Entrance.

"Dumbledore's gonna kill me."


	38. CH38 Returning To Pivet Drive

Chapter 38 – Returning To Pivet Drive

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:14th August 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Dumbledore's Office_

_Time:Afternoon_

In the Headmasters Office at Hogwarts Dumbledore sat in his chair, his wand waving over the pieces of metal scattered over his desk. He had managed to repair most of the damage inflicted by Harry at the end of the previous school year and this was one of the last few objects that remained broken.

It was a device of his own design, it was charmed to monitor the wards surrounding Pivet Drive but due to Harry's absence he had felt no need to repair this object sooner.

As the last piece of metal was reattached and the charms repaired, it started to whirl at top speed while an alarm sounded, indicating that the wards around Pivet Drive were down.

Dumbledore's eyes flew open, before he rapidly began to wave his wand over the object, desperate to find a fault in his repairs.

By the time he had finished scanning the entire canvas based population of the room were awake and shouting for him to turn it off.

He threw a silencing charm at it before moving rapidly to the fireplace, summoning powder from the nearby pot.

"12 Grimmauld Place."

As the fire flared he stepped in and swiftly out the other side.

No sooner had he appeared in the dinning room of said residence when a Message Patronus came running at him.

He recognised the shape as that of Tonks, he did not know how long ago the wards had fallen but if it was this afternoon it would explain why Tonks had sent word, the wards falling would not have been silent, far from it in fact they would have probably have fallen with a bang and a very bright flash.

As the Patronus entered him he saw the message appear in his mind, he was more than a little surprised by what he saw….why were the Dursley's on trial.

Quickly transfiguring his robes to resemble a Muggle suit and coat, he fired of his own memory spell (for whoever came to Headquarters next) and Apparated straight to the courtroom, appearing in the gents.

Walking out of the cubical, he quickly made his way to the courtroom that Tonks had specified in her message.

The hallway was almost entirely deserted except for one young woman dressed in a Muggle suit, leaning against the wall looking nervous and thoughtful.

As he approached the woman she looked up and sighed.

"What's happened Nymphadora?" he asked, causing her to twitch at the use of her first name.

"I saw Harry." She said quietly "He left with a group of people, one of whom matched the description of that Adam person you told us about."

She paused and took a breath before continuing.

"I was going to come up behind him when he left the courtroom and get us back to HQ using my emergency portkey, but he knew who I was and said so as he passed, I urged him to come back with me but he refused, I couldn't force the issue as I was outnumbered five to one as Harry can now do magic, so I didn't try anything."

"What happened in court?" the Headmaster asked, looking older than he usually did.

"The Dursley's were found guilty of assault, child abuse and slander and are being sent to prison." She turned to look at the aging Headmaster, her eyes on fire with an anger that Dumbledore had never seen before "How could you place Harry with people like that, they have been abusing him and forcing him to be there slave for the last fifteen years….they used the money that was meant for him to spoil their already spoiled brat of a son….how can you possibly condone that?"

Dumbledore just looked at her, lost for words, not quite believing what he was hearing.

"Child abuse, there must have been a mistake," he said looking down "They wouldn't have abused Harry."

"They did!" shouted Tonks "They did and they are paying for it and if I ever get a hold of them I will be spending the rest of my life in Azkaban."

With that she turned and marched her way out of the building leaving a bewildered and shocked Headmaster.

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:14th August 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – England – Surrey_

_Location:Pivet Drive – Little Whinging_

_Time:Afternoon_

In the town of Little Whinging, down Pivet Drive, four people appeared down the side of a house holding onto a black gentleman's tie.

Looking around they cautiously walked out onto the pavement before heading down the road.

As they arrived at the house in question they walked up the drive and put the key in the lock.

The young man with his hand on the key took a breath before turning the key and opening the door, the observations of an old lady and several cats looking out of a window further up the street went unnoticed.

* * *

Stepping over the threshold Harry walked into his residence of many years.

"This wallpaper is disgusting," commented Delphine "I wouldn't even force our servants to endure such revolting walls."

Harry walked into the sitting room, looking around at the house that had been the site of years of slavery.

He felt a hand slide into his and sighed in comfort, squeezing Fleur's hand back, suppressing the memories of his life at the Dursley's hands.

* * *

Dimitri and Delphine watched Harry cautiously as he walked into what used to be his home.

Delphine made a sarcastic (but true) commented about the disgusting wallpaper in an attempt to distract Harry from the memories they were certain were surfacing in his mind.

Harry didn't react and wondered into the sitting room, Fleur turned to them briefly and directed them up the stairs before following her mate into the room.

Walking up the stairs the Delacour's observed several rooms; there were three rooms with neat white doors on one side of the landing and on the other side down the far end was another door, the paint was peeling off and probably hadn't been cared for in over a decade, there were the holes for multiple locks and chains and a hastily repaired square in the door at the bottom where a cat flap had once been.

Dimitri cautiously walked over and opened the door.

The room he stepped into was by far the most squalid place he had ever been.

The paint on the walls must have been over twenty years old, the floor boards were rough and covered in splinters, the furniture was falling apart and looked like it could barely support its own weight and the bed, the bed looked so lumpy the he was sure that just tapping it would cause what was left of the springs to erupt through the mattress.

Several parts of the room had a fresh coat of paint on, as if someone had been attempting to conceal the gloomy nature of the room, the paint brush laid discarded on the floor where it had been dropped in haste, probably due to the arrival of the police.

Dimitri heard a gasp behind him as his wife came through the door.

"This was his room….this was where that kind noble young man grew up, how on earth did he turn out like he did after enduring this?"

"I don't know my love, but thank god he did." He sighed walking over to the window and leaning out; he could see the holes in the wall where the bars Harry had told them about had been fixed.

Closing the window, Dimitri turned back to his wife "Come dear, let us leave this miserable place."

They quietly headed downstairs to search for their daughter and her mate. At the bottom of the stairs they saw Fleur was kneeling down outside of a cupboard under the stairs, walking towards her they saw Harry sitting in a similar position inside the cupboard.

When they reached them they kneeled down next to them, Dimitri opened his mouth to speak but a look from Fleur stopped him.

Looking confused they looked to Harry.

He was kneeling inside the cupboard door running his hands over one of the beams, his body barely fitting into the small space. They had no idea how anyone could live in such a space.

They watched him for several seconds before he spoke.

"My name used to be here, I carved it when I still lived in here…they were never able to remove it or paint over it….my first bit of accidental magic….now its gone."

Fleur shuffled forward, until her knees were over the threshold.

"Harry….are you ok?"

He paused dropping his hand from the beaming before turning to them, wearing the biggest smile any of them had yet seen from him, his face positively glowing with happiness.

"I'm not just ok….I'm fantastic….for the first time, I have conclusive proof that I no longer call Pivet Drive my home."

Fleur smiled back and embraced him, feeling his joy flooding the link.

When they finally separated to see the smiling faces of Dimitri and Delphine, they stood and headed for the door leaving the miserable excuse for a house behind.

* * *

Remus heavily stepped through the fireplace of Order Headquarters and immediately headed for the kitchen.

He had just spent the entire day talking to other Werewolves about allegiance, most of the two to three hundred had already joined Voldemort but there were still a few dozen undecided.

Reaching the kitchen he headed straight for one of the cupboards, opening the cupboard he withdrew a glass, he then proceeded to close the cupboard, tab the door anf reopen it, withdrawing the bottle of fire whisky that he knew Sirius had hidden in the second compartment, knowing that Molly would never find it.

Walking back to the lounge he dropped down into a chair, opened the bottle filled the glass to the brim before draining it in one, ignoring the resulting smoke coming out of his ears and nostrils.

Before he had the chance to pour another much more sensibly sized amount a Patronus message charm flew into the room, recognising the phoenix as Dumbledore's he didn't move as it entered him, filling his mind with the contents of Tonks message from earlier that day.

Launching himself out of his seat he began moving towards the fireplace, only to have it flare to life as he approached only to have it filled with the face of Arabella Figg.

"Remus, Harry's here."

"He's what?" Remus exclaimed.

"He's here, in Pivet Drive along with a couple and another girl about his age."

"He's supposed to be in London, I just received a message from Tonks via Dumbledore, he's taking the Dursley's to court."

"I know, she told me before she left for London. If you want to stop him leaving you had better move fast."

"I'm coming through." He decided quickly picking up some powder from the pot by the fire as the face withdrew.

He quickly stepped through, not stopping to ask more and ran out into the street, Arabella trailing behind.

Just in time to see Harry and the other people Arabella described exiting the house.

He took of after them as they turned and headed in the other direction.

As he approached he could here what they were disusing.

"….I think I'll rent it out. Give myself a constant source of income."

"Good idea Harry," said the older woman "Though I would recommend redecorating first, I wouldn't live there if you paid me."

"Agreed." Nodded the man "I can recommend someone to do the house for you, he's not cheap but the quality and speed of work are easily worth it."

"We had better get going, dinner will be ready soon."

They turned and began to walk towards a house with a path to the back garden around one side.

"Harry." He called causing all four people to spin around, the eldest two raising there arms, the tips of their wands just visible inside the cuffs of their sleeves. Remus moved his arms out wide to show he was not armed.

"Remus." He returned.

"Harry you must come back with me, it's not safe."

"I am safe." Harry returned, not showing much emotion "At least a lot safer than I was."

Remus looked at him concerned, his eyes flicked towards number four "What did they do to you?" he asked his voice shaking slightly.

"Look up the court files for the case; Crown versus Dursley, or ask Tonks, she was there." He finished, beginning to walk away.

"Harry!" he exclaimed as the others followed him, there wands still aimed at him.

"Goodbye Remus." He said over his shoulder, before they disappeared down the side of a house.

Remus ran to the house but they were already gone.

He heard Arabella's foot steps coming up behind him.

"Well, that could have gone better."


	39. CH39 The Boy Who Lived Goes Missing

Chapter 39 – The-Boy-Who-Lived Goes Missing

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:15th August 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:Morning_

"Morning." Yawned Harry as he awoke the next day, Fleur's silver hair hanging down around his face as she looked down at him smiling.

"Morning Arry." She greeted back leaning down to kiss him softly "It's time to get up."

"I thought this was our day off," he grumbled.

"You can't have a day off if you don't get out of bed." She replied with another smile "Come on Arry, it's already ten o'clock."

"Oh, ok." Harry groaned, rolling onto his side as an already dressed Fleur slipped off him "What are we going to do today?"

"I haven't decided yet," she said handing him a shirt and match trousers "Come on its time for a late breakfast."

After a leisurely turn in the bathroom they slowly made their way down the stairs, as they entered the sitting room after their late breakfast they were greeted by the site of a serious looking Dimitri, Delphine and Viktor who were all staring at a series of newspapers lying on the table in front of them.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked nervously.

Dimitri sighed and held out a French paper, his face was on the front.

"I can't read French well….how bad is it?"

"Here," said Viktor picking up another paper and handing it to him "This was the one that started the rest off."

Taking the paper Harry looked at the cover.

_The Daily Prophet_

He should have known.

Looking further down the first page he saw another picture of himself as well as the headline.

_THE-BOY-WHO-LIVED GOES MISSING_

_Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Lived has disappeared. _

_Yesterday this reporter was at a Muggle courtroom after overhearing a couple of Muggle Lawyers discussing an upcoming case; needless to say I was surprised when I heard the name Harry Potter mentioned. My curiosity took me to the trial; you can understand my surprise when I heard that it was Harry Potter himself who was taking his guardians Vernon Dursley (his uncle), Petunia Dursley (Lily Potters sister and his aunt) and their rather large son Dudley Dursley to court. _

_The laws of the Wizarding World prevent me from telling you what the charges were or what happened inside the court but I can say that I and every other member of the courtroom was shocked by what they heard and by the time the sentencing had been concluded every member of the public in the court was cheering as the Dursley's were sentenced to many years in prison. As I have said previously I am unable to tell you what the charges where but I can tell you that each of Harry Potter's guardians received 25 years imprisonment from a unanimous guilty vote which will go some way to telling you the seriousness of the charges that were brought against them, in addition when the sentencing had been carried out Harry Potter's uncle exploded and started shouting to the MUGGLE courtroom that Harry was a freak and a wizard and that he had cast a spell on the court to get the guilty verdict._

_For those of you who do not know how courtrooms work, in the Muggle World all courtrooms are covered with Magic dampeners which made what he suggested impossible. Normally this reporter would have been obligated to Obliviate everyone present but due to the dampeners and the way that Vernon Dursley revealed our secret, it was quite obvious that it was a desperate and slightly mad plea from the obviously guilty and probably mad man and it was plainly obvious that the courtroom did not believe him so I did not worry about the incident and merely informed the Ministry later._

_After the trial finished this reported spoke to several of the residents of the same street who explained to me how terrible the Dursley's were to Mr Potter and by contrast how nice he had always been despite their 'tender' cares, according to the Dursley's neighbours that the Dursley's either worshipped the ground you walked on or treated you like you shouldn't exist. It was at this time that I also found out that the trial was the first time any of the residents of the area had actually seen Harry Potter all summer. Seeing the seriousness of what this could mean this reporter went straight to the Ministry and requested a test on the tracking charm placed upon Mr Potter's wand, to my and the Ministry Officials horror we discovered that the tracking charm had lost the signal shortly after the end of the school term, this led this reported to one conclusion._

_HARRY POTTER WAS MISSING_

Harry stopped reading at that point and breather a sigh or relief, he knew that he had seen a wizard at the trial.

"That's not as bad as I though it would be."

"I'm afraid Harry that that is the tip of the iceberg," explained Delphine, turning towards the paper covered table in front of them "These papers are from twenty three different countries, this story is global, people all over the world have started trying to track you down."

"The papers are digging up all the old stories about you," continued Viktor "Ranging from how people think you defeated Voldemort fifteen years ago to the theory that _Herm-own-ninny_ was toying with both of us during the Tournament."

Harry almost growled as the later story was mentioned.

"Yes, my reaction exactly." Agreed Viktor mirroring his expression.

"Let me guess…..Skeeter is the one digging up all the old stories?"

"Actually no," grinned Viktor "There is not a single new story from her in fact quite the reverse. There is a VERY small article in the back of the Prophet that says she has been fired for fictitious reporting, and most of the stories are now being looked at in detail and you are being portrayed as a victim to her and the Ministry."

"My God, wonders will never cease." laughed Harry "So what's the problem then?"

"The fact that this story is the number one news story in the Wizarding World and you are the most wanted man on the planet."

"….Oh."

"Indeed."

"Is there any risk of anyone finding out?"

"Not really." Explained Delphine "Only those inside this house, not including Madam Maxime are aware of where you are and Employee/Staff Privacy Spells prevent them from discussing confidential information outside of the grounds."

"Though according to this some people suspect that you are here," added Fleur with a grin "The paper has done a poll and apparently 6 of the French public think either that we have eloped or that I have kidnapped you away and am holding you prisoner until you agree to marry me."

"If only they knew." Harry added with a chuckle, not noticing the eager looks on the faces of the Delacour's when marriage was mentioned "What are the other possibilities?"

"20 think you have gone into hiding to learn the Dark Arts as to beat Voldemort at his own game," continued Fleur "8 think you have joined Voldemort, 15 think you've been killed by Voldemort, another 11 think that Fudge has had you killed, 23 think you have run off with either Erminey….Ermioney, she really does have a terrible name to pronounce,"

"Only if you have a French or Bulgarian accent." Smiled Adam.

"Eermione!...or Ginevra, 6 think you have moved into Durmstrang or are wooing the girls of Beauxbatons, another 6 think you are hiding from Dumbledore, Fudge, Voldemort and anyone else who is after or trying to control you and the last 5 think you are just trying to get attention."

"Not bad." grinned Harry.

"And that's just the French papers." added Dimitri "Imagine what the British papers are saying, the Prophet has offered a two hundred galleon reward for information about your whereabouts."

"Blimey, I wonder how Dumbledore and Fudge are reacting to this?"

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:15th August 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Dumbledore's Office_

_Time:Morning_

Sitting in his office Dumbledore was looking sadly down at the newspapers in front of him, the pictures of Harry stared back as if taunting him for not being able to find him.

Looking down at the article again his eyes wondered over the passage describing the quote from the Minister.

"_We are doing everything in our power to find Mr Potter," explained the Minister "It is of the highest priority for us to find him as soon as possible, our Aurors are looking into his disappearance and are following leads as to his whereabouts." During the speech the Minister of Magic began to look increasingly nervous as he tried his hardest to make it look like he was doing something despite the fact that he and Mr Potter have been firmly against each other for over a year ever since the Minister refused to believe The-Boy-Who-Lived when he told the World that Voldemort was back._

Looking up again Dumbledore pondered over his thoughts, he knew that the reporter had been right, Tonks (despite her anger towards him) and the other members of The Order that were also members of The Ministry had told him that there had been chaos ever since the news came in that Harry was missing, government had virtually ground to a halt as the Minister threw the resources of the entire Ministry into finding Harry.

What worried him more though was that just before the story had reached the papers he had had to order Severus to tell Voldemort that Harry was missing and he was terrified by the fact that he had no idea how Tom would react.


	40. CH40 Dumbledore Comes To Beauxbatons

Chapter 40 – Dumbledore Comes To Beauxbatons

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:15th August 2001 AD_

_Country:France – Pic Du Thaume_

_Location:Beauxbatons Academy Of Magic – DAA Classroom_

_Time:Morning_

"Well done everyone." Smiled Harry as the bell announcing the end of class sounded "I want seven inches on different methods of avoiding the effects of spells."

As his seventh years filed out he moved over to the centre platform and retrieved his cloak before heading down to lunch.

He had had a tiring lesson; the seventh years were no pushovers, if it hadn't been for the extra training he was receiving he would have been in the Infirmary several times in the course of one lesson.

As he reached the ground floor and turned towards the Great Hall, when a very familiar voice called out.

"Greetings."

The voice filled him with dread.

How had he found out where he was and how could he see through his disguise. He slowly turned, running his fingers over his robe holster to loosen his wand encase he needed to defend himself.

"My name is Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts; I don't think we have been introduced?"

Harry sighed inwardly; the old man didn't know who he was.

"Daniel Radcliffe," he said extending his hand, which the old mage took "DAA and Flying Instructor, can I help you?"

"Indeed, I am looking for the Office of Madame Maxine." He smiled.

"Follow me." Harry smiled turning back towards the stairs, wondering if the Headmaster could survive the long ascent.

"How long have you been working here?" Dumbledore asked, Harry was pretty sure he was just making conversation and did not in fact recognise him, but with this old man you never knew for certain.

"Less than a month, I came to France to see my girlfriend and Madame Maxine happened to hear about my skills with a wand and broom. With the assistance of my girlfriend and her family they managed to press gang me into this job."

A smile spread across the old mages face.

"Sensible woman, if I may ask how old are you?"

"Seventeen as of May, why?" he replied, watching as a set of fifth years passed them, surprise evident on their faces at the sight of the most powerful wizard in the world walking through their school.

"You just seem rather young to be teaching; shouldn't you be taking your Newts?"

"I get private tutelage; I have lived in America for several years though I was born English, both my parents died several years ago so I decided to stay where I was until I met my girlfriend when she visiting with her family."

"I see." Nodded Dumbledore "How long do you plan on teaching here?"

"Only until the end of the summer, then I plan to go back to America, hopefully by then Olympe will have found someone else, here we are." He finished arriving at Madam Maxine's Office.

He knocked quickly and waited for the Headmistress to answer, thinking it better that he explain as fast as he could that Dumbledore did not know who he was he moved directly into the line of sight for anyone looking out of the door.

It opened to reveal the tall form of Madam Maxine.

"Daniel." She smiled before noticing Dumbledore.

"Albus!" she exclaimed.

"Olympe." He returned smiling "Professor Radcliffe here was kind enough to show me the way to your office."

"I see." She nodded, understanding the situation, "Come in."

"If you do not mind I will return to the Great Hall, the seventh years have left me with quiet an appetite." Harry added giving Olympe a short head bow.

"Of course Daniel, can you come back after you have eaten; there is something we need to discuss." She smiled.

"Of course Olympe." He said returning her smile before turning and walking back down the stairs.

Several times during the course of lunch he was asked by students if it really had been Professor Dumbledore they had seen talking to him.

After quickly finishing his lunch he hurried back to Olympe's Office, not wanting to leave her alone with Dumbledore for to long. She was strong but Dumbledore was very good at extracting information, he just hoped he didn't suspect anything.

As he rounded the last corner he came face to face with the elderly male wizard.

"Professor Dumbledore." He greeted.

"Professor Radcliffe." He returned "I have a proposition to put to you."

"Yes." Harry replied cautiously.

"Madam Maxine was most complimentary about your teaching, I will be appointing several new Professors at Hogwarts this year and I was wondering if you would agree to come and teach duelling at Hogwarts?"

Harry took a step back, he had not expected what he had heard and had no idea how to react, he quickly tried to stall for time.

"Can I, do you mind if I get back to you, it's not something I want to decide in a corridor." He replied, hoping Dumbledore would accept that response.

"Of course." the Headmaster smiled "I will send you an official letter within the hour, owl me with your response, then we can discuss the details of the job, farewell."

With that the Headmaster turned and walked down the stairs and out of Beauxbatons.

Harry stood there for several seconds, stunned by what had just happened.

After several seconds he walked towards Olympe's Office. Finding the door ajar he cautiously knocked and walked in.

Olympe's Office was very similar to Harry's except the desk and chair behind it were larger and there were no stairs to her rooms, just a door.

The Headmistress was standing on the other side of the room next to a drinks trolley, downing a very large glassful.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

She looked at him sharply, before taking a breath and sighing.

"I'm fine, it's just….that man can be so…." She almost growled.

"Aggravating, manipulative, interfering, uncooperative, annoying?" Harry offered smiling.

"All of the above." She returned, pouring both him and herself more reasonably sized drinks and handing one to him before taking a seat in one of the armchairs by the fire and gesturing him towards the other.

"What did he say?" he asked.

"He was asking about you, asking if I had followed up every possible lead etc, trying to make other people do all the leg work." She grumbled.

"How did he know where the school was? I thought all the Wizarding schools were hidden from each other?"

"Albus doesn't know where Beauxbatons is, just as I don't know where Hogwarts is, all the schools are protected by wards, you have to be invited to be allowed admittance and to know where it is physically located, but each of the Heads of the three major European schools are keyed into the other schools wards so that we can Floo or portkey in at will, but its like appearing in a sealed room, you know how to get to the room, but you do not know whether the room is one hundred meters below ground level or falling through the sky, when we went to Hogwarts for the Tournament we could not see where we were flying because the ground was obscured." she explained, before turning to Harry "Why did you look so shocked when you came in?"

"Professor Dumbledore just offered me a job."

"He what!" she exclaimed, making Harry jump, almost spilling his drink.

"He wants me to teach duelling at Hogwarts." He repeated, turning to look at Olympe's shocked expression.

He was surprised moments later when the shock left her face, leaving a smile in its place before it turned into a full blown laugh, which coming from a half giant was very loud and more than a little scary.

"What's funny?" he asked.

"I'm sorry Arry," she gasped sucking in air and trying to stop herself laughing anymore "I just find it amusing that not only does Dumbledore not recognise you when you are standing right in front of him, but he invites you teach yourself duelling. He probably wants a Duelling Master to help teach Harry Potter how to defend against Voldemort."

Seeing the logic, a smile spread across Harry's face wondering how Dumbledore would react when he found out.

"Will you accept?" she asked, finally having taken control of her laughing.

"It would be a bit awkward wouldn't it, teaching while still being a student, how would I disguise who I really am when I'm not attending my own classes?" replied Harry getting more than a little confused at all the pronouns being used.

"That's easy, you make sure you have your name down on a contract and then you reveal who you are whether publicly or privately because by that point there is nothing he can do about it, especially if you do some research into the Hogwarts rules so that he can not use your ignorance of them against you."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked cautiously.

"Well for example, did you know that the Headmistress of Beauxbatons can not fire a member of staff unless they have been proven incompetent at teaching, that they have done something to cause disruption to the school or the people in it, that they have done something against the law or they have become dangerous to the population of the school….I imagine Hogwarts has similar rules and being a Professor would give you authority to influence events in the school."

The grin that spread across Harry's face was positively evil.

"Arry, if I ever get on your bad side please tell me."

He turned to her confused.

"I would rather know that I am on your bad side than be on the receiving end of the revenge of someone who can grin like that."

He laughed taking a casually drink from the glass and watched as Olympe grinned again when the fire whisky began to burn his throat.

"Oh Arry, (laugh) you really are not good at drinking are you."


	41. CH41 Feathers And Beaks

Chapter 41 – Feathers And Beaks

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:15th August 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:Late Afternoon_

Harry picked himself of the floor of the Delacour's sitting room after another horrible Floo journey.

Still wearing his Daniel guise he made his way to Fleur's room, which they were staying in that night, they were going to start using it to give them another day repeat to learn Occlumency and other things from Adam.

As he entered the room he shrugged of his robe, folded it and threw it over the back of a nearby chair, landing still folded with a skill that comes from doing it often.

He started to unbutton his shirt when he heard the door open, but the voice that followed was definitely not Fleur's

"Feathers, you won't believe what's. Oh…. Sorry." Apologised the woman who entered.

She was dressed in a blue dress that darkened and lightened to hide certain areas of her anatomy, it fell just passed her knees, but was loose enough so as to allow her legs to be revealed if she spun quickly and thin enough as not to make it too hot to wear during a French Summer.

She appeared to be about Fleur's age, with a similar build though she was slightly curvier but not so much that she was a different dress size. She was somehow familiar, though he couldn't place where he knew her from, but one thing that he was sure of was that the silvery blond hair flowing over her shoulders was a clear sign that she was part Veela, how many of them were there in France?.

"I was looking for Fleur." She continued "I didn't mean to intrude."

"Don't worry, my fault, I should have locked the door." He smiled back, still trying to place why she looked familiar.

"Well if you had I wouldn't have got to see you with your shirt open." She smiled as her shocked look turned to one of seductive.

_Oh God, please not again._

It was a look that made Harry very nervous and start to backup slowly, pulling his shirt closed.

"What are you doing in Fleur's room?" she purred, shrugging her shoulder to allow a dress strap to slide off and hang against her arm.

"I'm…." he gulped "I'm Fleur's boyfriend."

"Really." She replied, smiling evily "Now why would you want to be going out with Fleur when you could be going out with me." She smiled, walking towards him before pressing him against the end of the bed, forcing her well developed chest against his.

"I'm a lot more fun." She whispered into his ear as her hand came around and grabbed his crotch through his trousers making him jump. "How about I give you a free sample?"

"Moving in on my property again Beaky." Came Fleur's voice from the doorway.

"Oh thank Merlin." He breathed, closing his eyes in relief, though not relaxing as 'Beaky' still had her hand on his crotch.

"Feathers." smiled the woman, turning to Fleur after giving him one last squeeze "Just testing out the merchandise."

The two women faced each other for several seconds before they both broke down in laughter and hugged each other giving each other a peck on the cheek.

Harry just looked on confused as the two women embraced.

After finally parting they both smiled at each other before 'Beaky' continued talking.

"How have you been, I haven't heard a word from you in weeks."

"Yes, well…." smiled Fleur, glancing at Harry "I've been rather busy."

"I can see that," grinned the newcomer "Keep this one Feathers, he barely even twitched when I pressed against him, he did even better than Bill, not even reacting when I laid hands on him, is he really as big as he feels?" she asked excitedly.

"Oh yes," beamed Fleur "Definitely."

"Sorry to interrupt," said Harry cautiously, drawing both ladies attention "But can someone explain to me what just happened?"

The two ladies exchanged a look before breaking down in laughter again at Harry's perplexed look.

"I'm sorry Harry, let me explain." Smiled Fleur, regaining her composure "My friend decided to put you through the boyfriend test."

"Boyfriend test?"

"Yes," smiled the friend "Whenever one of us would get a new boyfriend the other would give him a test to see whether they just wanted us for our looks, sex, etc, or if they really wanted to be with us for us, its one of the flaws with being naturally gorgeous."

"So far," continued Fleur "Only you have passed with a perfect mark." She smiled.

"What about Bill?" he asked curiously.

"He is currently ranked second," replied Fleur's friend "He had a bigger physical reaction but other than that he was very similar to you." She turned back to Fleur "If you ever decide you don't want him, can I have him….Please."

Fleur chuckled before turning back to Harry.

"This is Colette, my best friend; you might have seen her at the Tournament."

Thinking back Harry tried to recall some of the other Beauxbatons students, after a moments though he remembered another blond who always appeared near Fleur.

"Oh yes, I remember."

"You were at the Tournament?" Colette asked curiously, going up to Harry and giving him a peck on the cheek as opposed to a hand shake "Were you a student or a spectator?"

Harry, while trying not to blush decided to turn the situation around, taking Colette's hand and giving it a kiss.

"I was a contestant." He grinned.

She blushed for a moment before realising what he said.

"You were what!"

"He was a contestant." Repeated Fleur.

"But who….you can't be Viktor, your accent is too good and you can't possibly be…." She paused her mouth opening wide in shock "No, no you can't be….your too old….you can't be….you just can't….your having me on."

Harry drew his want and cancelled the charms, revealing his normal appearance.

"Holy Merlin in a corset!" exclaimed Colette before wobbling for a moment and passing out.

Harry's reflexes caught her before she hit the ground.

"That's the first time I have ever seen her faint." Giggled Fleur "Put her on the bed and I'll revive her, just encase she faints again."

Swinging her light form up into her arms (Harry wonder if all Veela weight nothing); he carried her over to Fleur's bed and laid her down before stepping back and allowing Fleur to revive her friend.

Colette groaned slightly before her eyes fluttered open, she looked up at Fleur questioningly.

"What just happened?"

"You passed out." Fleur smiled down at her friend, trying hard not to laugh.

"Why did I pass out?" Colette continued.

"You saw who my man really is."

Colette thought for a moment, after several seconds her eyes flew open and she sat bolt upright, her eyes flying to Harry.

"Holy…." She tried again, before pausing and turning to Fleur "Is that really him?"

"Yes."

"The Boy-Who-Lived?"

"Yes."

"The Triwizard Tournament Winner?"

"Yes!"

"The hero of the Department of Mysteries?"

"For Morgana's sake Colette, YES!"

Colette turned back to Harry.

"Errr….Hi." she said shyly.

"Hello." He replied, chuckling slightly.

"Very smooth Beaky." Smiled Fleur.

"Oh shut up Feathers, I wasn't exactly expecting to meet one of the most famous wizards alive and probably the most hunted person on the planet when I came to visit and speaking of which, what are you doing here and how come you are speaking French?"

"I learned French and Fleur rescued me from my relatives care." Harry explained.

"Rescued you?" she asked confused, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed to sit beside Fleur.

"They were abusing him, he had been beaten black and blue, he had broken rips, burned skin and was almost dead from Wizarding Flu." Fleur explained venom evident in her voice as she talked about the Dursley's treatment of her mate; she was literally shaking with anger at the thought.

"Oh Morgana!" exclaimed Colette leaning into give her friend a much needed hug.

"Thank you Beaky" smiled Fleur as she leaned back, smiling at her friend.

"Beaky?" Harry asked confused.

"Yes," smiled Colette, "I'm Beaky and Fleur is Feathers."

"Why?"

"You probably guessed that I am Veela right?"

Harry nodded

"Well, I'm half-Veela so when I transform I can not fully become a bird but I transform most of the way," explained Colette "To the point where I develop a beak, whereas Fleur is only quarter-Veela so she can't form a beak but does get the wings and the feathers, hence the names."

Harry nodded his understanding before turning to Fleur.

"I've just realised, I've never actually seen you transformed."

"You wouldn't want to." whispered Fleur, her head down, trying to avoid the conversation.

"Why not?" asked Harry kneeling down in front of her.

"You wouldn't want to see me looking like that." She explained.

Harry reached forward and took Fleur's hand.

"Please Fleur." He asked, looking deep into her eyes, opening up the link so she could feel his want to get to know every part of her.

"Come on Feathers," added Colette, though her voice was noticeably deeper and harder "I keep telling you not to hide that part of yourself and how many of your boyfriends have actually wanted to see your Veela form."

Harry turned to her briefly, trying to figure out why her voice suddenly sounded different, as he saw her he nearly fell over in shock.

Standing before him was not the young woman he had just been talking to but what can only be described as a giant bird.

Out of her back a pair of grey wings had sprouted, her hands and feet had turned to talons, her hair and skin turned into grey and white feathers and her nose and mouth had melded to form a beak, she was not completely bird, her features were still vaguely human, but were definitely more avian than human.

"That is why I don't want to transform." Whispered Fleur quietly as Harry regained his balance after the shock of seeing her friend's current appearance.

"I was just surprised Fleur, she is still Colette underneath….Please Fleur." He asked again, lifting her chin up with his hand.

Fleur took a breath before closing her eyes.

Harry watched fascinated as the light hairs on her arms lengthened, turning into grey feathers, her fingers lengthened as her nails became talons, her dress disappeared through some unknown magic as a pair of wings grew out of her back, extending out at least three meters before she brought them around trying to conceal herself from her mate.

Harry sighed before leaning forward to use most of his strength to pull open her wings, fighting against the powerful new muscles holding them in place, preventing him from seeing her body.

Her appearance was similar to that of Colette though the changes were not as great, her wings where slightly smaller, her hands still kept the human bone structure while Colette's fingers had spread and the angle to which they met the hand had altered to allow her to better grip any prey, Fleur's body also had a thinner coating of feathers over her, the white feathers over her front in particular were very fine while Colette had a thick layer over her entire form.

Harry leaned forward and took Fleur's feathered face in his hands and brought her eyes up to meet his allowing him to see her face, it was covered in very fine feathers which almost appeared as though it was fur, her pupils had turned yellow with a large black centre and her features had hardened as her eyebrows and the top of her nose had become more prominent, beginning to arrange themselves to support a beak.

Her eyes looked fearful, not wanting him to see her like this.

"Why were you afraid to show me this?" he asked gently.

"Because I'm not pretty, people are scared of me when I'm like this, they stare and don't talk to me, they treat me like an animal, not daring to come near me encase I attack them….I thought you'd be repulsed by me."

Harry smiled kindly.

"You are still you Fleur, you are still the woman who saved my life, you are still the woman who brought me back to health, you are still the woman who entered my mind and saved me from myself and you are still the woman that I fell in love with."

Tears of happiness began to fall down her cheeks as Harry brought her face to his, kissing her, feeling the soft feathers against his skin.

"And you are still beautiful Fleur."

Fleur couldn't hold herself back any longer; she threw herself at him, hugging him as if her life depended on it, wrapping both her arms and wings around him.

"I love you Harry, I love you so much."

Harry just held her to him, letting her emotions run their course.

Eventually, Harry felt the feathers turn back to skin; her talons becoming fingernails and her facial bones shift back to their original shape.

He pulled back slowly and looked into her smiling face.

"Thank you Arry." She beamed "I've never felt beautiful when I look like that….not until now."

They remained staring into each others eyes until they heard a sniffle to their left.

Looking up they saw their now human Colette with a handkerchief in her hand dapping at her eyes.

"That was beautiful." She beamed at them.

"Don't go getting sappy on us." Smiled Fleur as they got to their feet "Now, what brought you here in the first place?"

"What….oh yes. You'll never believe this, I got this letter." She said excitedly, pulling a white envelope out of a forbidden area of her dress making Harry overt his eyes "It's from Albus Dumbledore of Hogwarts, he's…."

"Offering you a job." Harry and Fleur finished.

They all looked around at each other in shock.

"You too?" they all exclaimed at once.

Fleur pulled a letter out of her dress while Harry summoned his own letter which had arrived during his meeting with Olympe.

"How can you have a letter?" asked Colette looking at Harry "You're still a student."

"I've been teaching at Beauxbatons all summer." He replied with a sly smile.

Comprehension dawned on Colette's face as she worked something out.

"You're Professor Radcliffe!" she exclaimed.

"How did you know that?" he asked.

"My sister told my mother and I found out from there."

Fleur watched Harry intently, waiting for him to connect the last pieces of the puzzle.

Precisely on queue Harry's eyes flew open and he jumped back about a foot, tripping over one of the chairs, sending him tumbling to the floor.

"You're Colleen's sister!" he exclaimed, jumping to his feet and unconsciously reaching for his wand.

Colette rolled her eyes.

"I take it that means that my sister has already tried to seduce you?" she sighed.

"Not just your sister," smiled Fleur "The 'Nets' tried at the same time, I arrived in time to see them battling over Arry while Violette had him pinned to the floor."

Colette laughed loudly.

"Wow, I wish I had seen that, it must have been hilarious."

"It was terrifying." Commented Harry, regaining his composure, trying to keep what little dignity he had left.

"I promise you Harry I will not try to seduce you while you are with Fleur." She smiled, drawing a cross over her heart with her finger.

"Anyway," interrupted Fleur "Getting back to the point, what position were you offered at Hogwarts?"

Harry looked down at the letter in his hands.

"According to this my job title is," read Harry "Duelling Master."

"Wow, I don't think Hogwarts has had one of those for centuries." Exclaimed Colette, "What were you offered Fleur?"

"History Of Magic," she read, turning to Harry "Wasn't there a ghost teaching that subject?"

"Professor Binns yes, it's about time he retired, his lessons could literally bore you to death."

"According to this he's not, I will be teaching the History of Magical Creatures: Veela, Goblins and the like, and how they interacted with the Wizarding world, while he will continue to teach Wizarding history."

"That should certainly make the students pay attention in class," grinned Colette "Especially the male ones."

Harry growled at the comment.

Fleur smiled "Don't worry Harry, its ok for them to look….after all, you are the only one who gets to touch." She emphasised her point by running her hand down his chest, causing Harry to moan quietly, earning grins from both the ladies.

"Anyway," smiled Fleur "What job were you offered Beaky?"

"According to this I will be teaching Alternative Magic." She read.

"Alternative Magic?" asked Harry confused.

"Yes, the abilities of Magical creatures and other types of Wizarding Magic that are not used in Europe, I tend to travel a lot and I have seen how different cultures both modern and historic use magic."

"That should be an interesting subject."

"Just try not to bring too much politics and law into it Beaky." Added Fleur.

"Politics and law?" asked Harry confused.

"Colette's father is another member of the Council Of Power," explained Fleur "He is an elected individual who also happens to be a very clever businessman."

"He runs several clothing shops in Europe," contributed Colette "But he also has a keen liking for politics, history and law."

"A liking he unfortunately passed along to Colette, she can literally talk you ear off when she starts talking politics, that is if you can get her to put a book down."

"Hey!" exclaimed Colette.

"What do you mean 'hey', its true isn't it?"

"Well maybe so, but you didn't have to say it." She complained, her smile not quite enforcing the 'I'm hurt' look as much as it should have been.

"Anyway, regardless of that," continued Fleur "Are we going to be accepting these jobs?"

"I will be," replied Harry immediately "That way I will have some leverage with our dear Headmaster."

"I will too," smiled Colette "I like the idea of teaching one of my hobbies at probably the most famous Wizarding School in the world."

"Likewise," smiled Fleur "That way I can be near Harry as often as possible, it will save a lot of problems that could develop if we are separated for to long."

"Merlin's tonsils!" exclaimed Colette, her hands flying to her mouth in shock "Your mated aren't you!"

Harry and Fleur exchanged a look before nodding to the shocked woman.

"Why on earth didn't you tell me!" she exclaimed.

"Well, I am supposed to be in hiding." Replied Harry.

"Yes but still, Fleur knows she can trust me," she looked to her friend "You could always tell me anything."

Fleur looked down before walking over to her friend "I'm sorry Beaky, I have just been so busy and all I guess I….I forgot."

Colette looked at her for a second before smiling and embracing her.

"I forgive you Feathers; just don't let it happen again." She smiled moving back to sit on the bed "Now spill."

Fleur smiled before moving over next to her friend, while Harry followed and sat in the chair beside the bed.

"What have you been up to?" asked Colette.

"Other than the mating?" asked Fleur.

"Yes, other than the mating, I'm going to want you to give me a full explanation about that later, but now I want you to explain why you seem to have developed some muscles?"

"Why do you say that?" asked Fleur looking at her arms, not noticing any difference.

"Firstly when I hugged you earlier your muscles were so hard I felt like I was trying to squeeze through stone and secondly when you hugged me back I almost felt my ribs crack."

"Oh...Sorry." replied Fleur sheepishly.

"I will forgive you when I receive an explanation."

"Ok," smiled Fleur "Well, when Harry arrived we offered to train him and I wasn't about to let him do it alone so I trained with him, we've been using a Time Turner to allow us to learn as much as possible over the summer, we have been doing between six to eight repeats of everyday for the last two weeks."

"Six to eight!" exclaimed Colette "That means what….you've been together for around…. one hundred days!"

"Sounds about right." Nodded Harry.

"No wonder you seem so comfortable around each other."

The conversation continued with Fleur explaining to Colette about the Delacour's backing Harry and everything that had happened since; over half an hour later Harry decided that he needed a break. Going to get a drink he left the women to have a 'girly chat' in his absence.

Heading downstairs he walked into the Sitting Room where Delphine was going over a stack of papers.

"Good day Harry?" she asked.

"Interesting would probably be the best word to describe it….I had a little run in with Dumbledore today."

"What!" she exclaimed "What happened?"

"He offered me a job."

Delphine sat looking at him for several seconds before flatly saying;

"Can you repeat that please?"

"He offered me a job at Hogwarts."

She remained in the same position for several more seconds before bursting out laughing.

Harry arched an eyebrow and crossed his arms, waiting for her to finish, but his expression only seemed to amuse her further.

_Why does everyone find the idea so amusing?_

"I'm sorry Harry," she gasped, straightening her robes "I just like the thought of how much trouble you could cause for that old man if you became a Professor."

"Olympe said the same."

"I take it that he did not recognise you." She said, gesturing to the other chair.

"No, or if he did he didn't show any signs of noticing."

"Good to see that you're acting skills are up to scratch," she smiled "When do you plan on telling him?"

"No idea," he shrugged "But I am going to enjoy the moment when I do."

"Yes, it should be very entertaining," she grinned "Anything else happen today?"

"Isn't that enough?" he asked with a smile.

"Normally yes, but this is the first time I have seen you come back from Beauxbatons and still be wearing your work clothes almost an hour afterwards."

Harry nodded his understanding.

"I had a run in with another Veela." He smiled.

"Any particular Veela?" she asked with a smile.

"Colette."

"Oh my," she laughed "That must have been entertaining. Did she put you through the boyfriend test?"

"Yes." He nodded, trying not to think about the event itself.

"How did you do?" she asked leaning forward in interest.

"Apparently I beat Bill."

"I'm not surprised," she smiled, leaning back "The mating may have helped you there, but knowing you as I do you probably would have beat him anyway. What else happened?"

"Fleur showed me why Colette gave her the nickname Feathers."

Delphine suddenly sat straighter, her amusement changing to shock.

"She transformed for you?" she asked not quite believing what she had heard "It's almost impossible to get her to do that, how did you manage it?"

"I told her repeatedly that I wanted to get to know every part of her."

"And what did you think?"

"I told her that I still loved her, that it was still her under the surface and that she was still beautiful."

Harry was surprised moments later when Delphine dropped to her knees in front of him and pulled him into a bone crushing hug.

"Harry, you never cease to amaze me, Fleur really made a good choice for her mate."

"Yes I did." Agreed Fleur from the doorway as she and Colette walked in.

"Have you told Fleur yet?" Delphine asked.

"I didn't need to; she was offered a job as well, as was Colette."

"Really?" the older blond asked leaning back onto her heels "Have you decided on what are you going to do?"

"Yes, we're going to accept," nodded Fleur "But first we need to sort out our contracts, we need to make sure that Dumbledore can't try to get rid of either Arry or myself when he finds out about our relationship."

"That should be easy," smiled Harry reaching into his pocket "Olympe lent me this."

He withdrew a book and enlarged it to its normal size. The title read:

_Hogwarts Rules And Regulations _

"Dumbledore sent a draft copy of our contracts with our letters; we just need to check that the book and the contracts cover all possible possibilities and we will be home and dry."

"Have you had a chance to look through that yet?" asked Colette.

"No, but Olympe looked through the contract and thinks its sound but I just want to double check."

"Well everyone." Smiled Collette "It looks like we're going back to school."


	42. CH42 Fleur’s Unforgivable

Chapter 42 – Fleur's Unforgivable

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:18th August 2001 AD_

_Country:France_

_Location:?_

_Time:Early Morning_

In a forest, somewhere in the South of France stands a lone figure.

He is dressed simply in a pair of jeans and a shirt with a leather jacket over the top, to the casual observer he appears perfectly ordinary except for the lightning shaped scar on his forehead and the piece of wood gripped between the fingers of his right hand.

The fog swirls around him as a jet of red light flies out of the mist.

He dives sideways, rolling as he hits the ground to cushion the impact before spinning around to fire his own burst of red light back into the mist.

A thud is heard from the direction that the spell emanated from.

Harry's eyes dart around, searching for any movement.

Jumping to his feet he sidestepped the curse coming from behind him before whirling around and throwing a curse back.

The Death Eater raised a shield, deflecting the curse before firing a pair of curses back at him.

Turning sideways, Harry let the curses pass on either side of him before firing a punching curse followed by a full-body bind.

The Death Eaters shield shattered at the first, knocking him off his feet, sending him falling to the ground, his body going rigid from the second attack before he even hit the forest floor.

Scanning the area again Harry began to move through the forest, several times he heard rustlings on either side of him, but nothing that gave him cause for action.

Behind him he heard the sound of rapidly flattened leaves as someone or something came charging through the undergrowth.

He spun around, his wand coming to bare, a curse already on his lips.

He cut his words short as he saw the familiar form of Fleur come into view, her wand also pointed in precaution before raising it upon seeing him.

They both sighed and turned their attention back to the problem of escaping the forest.

Harry took the lead, with Fleur following close behind.

They entered a clearing, it seemed at least ten metres in diameter but the fog made it hard to tell.

They heard the sounds of curses being shouted from either side of them, both ducked as green jets of light flew over their heads before colliding with the enemies on the opposing side sending several to meet their maker.

Harry spun to take the enemies to the left while Fleur spun to the right.

They fired simultaneously, each sending curses into the mist, causing shouts of alarm from the edges of the clearing.

Seeing a jet of purple light heading his way, Harry threw up a shield in time to deflect the spell back at the enemy.

A thump could be heard from the forest edge, similar noises were heard behind him as Fleur finished cursing.

He turned his head so he could see her out of his peripheral vision.

She turned to him and nodded before they both stood.

Harry sighed and turned back in the direction they had been travelling.

"**Expelliarmus." Came a voice from behind him as his wand flew out of his hand.**

He turned to see his mate aiming both wands at him.

"Fleur?"

She grinned evilly.

"Crucio!"

The world went black.

* * *

"Arry?...Arry?"

Harry groaned as he came back to consciousness.

"Arry, are you awake."

His vision came back into focus in time to see Fleur leaning over him concerned.

"Stay back." He warned, pushing her away, causing her to fall backwards.

"Arry?" she asked uncertain and hurt.

"Harry," came Adam's voice "That wasn't Fleur, it was an illusion remember."

It suddenly came back to Harry, he had been testing their skill, it wasn't real, he hadn't been in the forest, he hadn't even left the training room.

"Yes….yes, I remember...I so sorry Fleur." He said worriedly to his mate, seeing the fragile look on her face.

"Arry….what did you see?" she asked uncertainly.

"He saw you turn on him then cast the torture curse on him." Explained Adam.

She looked to Adam then back to Harry in shock, before diving forward and hugging him to her tightly.

Harry had a moment's uncertainty before he felt her pain at his reaction down the link and returned the embraced.

After several seconds she pulled back just far enough so that she could look him in the eyes and took his face in her hands.

"Arry….I will never do anything to hurt you…..never."

"I know Fleur," he smiled weakly "I know, it just shocked me that's all."

She leaned in and kissed him before pulling back and turning angrily on Adam.

"Why did you make him see that?" she demanded, standing and moving towards him.

"I was giving him his first lesson," replied Adam calmly, not reacting to her angry expression "If you recall your illusion, you underwent the same test."

"You saw me cast an unforgivable on you?" Harry asked, mortified by the very thought.

"No," replied Adam turning to Harry and offering him his hand "She saw her friend Colette cast the killing curse on her."

"Why not me?" Harry asked, accepting the hand and pulling himself to his feet.

Adam turned back to Harry's mate.

"Fleur, what would you have done if you had seen Harry?"

Fleur thought for a moment, her anger still evident on her face but willing to cooperate.

"I would probably have used our link to verify that it was Arry."

"Which is why I presented you with your friend and as you were being hunted at the time, it ensured that you could not verbally verify that she was who she appeared to be as any noise would have alerted the enemy to your position and thusly you fell into the same trap, QED."

"What?" asked Harry.

"Quod erat demonstrandum." Replied Adam.

"It's latin," explained Fleur "It means 'Which was to be demonstrated'."

"Oh." Nodded Harry before turning back to Fleur "You were caught out to?"

She nodded, embarrassed by her failure.

"Do not be disheartened," commented Adam "I expected that outcome from both of you….Fleur, you have never really been in an actual battle other than formalised duals so that sort of scenario is entirely new to you. Harry, you have been in many battles but with the exception of your forth year you have not encountered a situation where you have encountered a disguised person."

They both nodded numbly.

"This is my first lesson; don't always trust that people are who they say they are, the key is to know when to be suspicious and when to be trusting."

They each nodded again, both still feeling bad about not passing their first test.

"Second lesson," began Adam, walking about ten meters away from them he turned back to them and continued "I want Harry….actually no, both of you, I want both of you to fire curses at me from different points around the room."

"Why?" asked Fleur.

"Because I am going to dodge ALL the curses you throw at me."

Harry and Fleur exchanged a look before shrugging and walking apart so as to fire at him from different angles.

"Make it as difficult for me as possible; don't stop firing until you hit me or until I tell you to do otherwise."

They both nodded.

"Begin when rea…." He leaping sideways as Harry's first curse flew at him, impacting the wall behind him as Fleur's flew in the direction that he had dodged.

Harry aimed again, firing of a stunner silently, as Adam only told them to hit him not to incapacitate him, Harry didn't need to worry about the power of his spells, which meant he could easily cast silently, as Fleur was also doing.

Adam spun sideways as a pair of curses passed on either side of him, just missing his body, before he leapt into the air as Harry aimed a curse at the ground below his feet, turning it to mud.

Kicking off the wall, Adam sailed over the next pair of curses and between the pair as they brought their wands to bear.

He shouted stop as he heard a thud and Fleur gasp in shock.

"Oh Merlin, Arry." She cried running to her mate as he began getting back up, shaking of the effects of the light stunner

She dropped down to his side as he got back to his knees, the effects of the stunner completely gone.

"I'm so sorry Arry, I've broken my promise to you already, please forgive me?" She pleaded, looking at the floor in shame.

Harry looked at Fleur, he saw in that moment a Fleur that not many people ever saw; gone was the proud, strong, slightly vain young woman he was used to and in her place was a humble frightened girl.

"Fleur, you said you would never do anything to hurt me….you haven't, you just fell into his trap."

"He's right Fleur," agreed Adam "You were angry at me for putting Harry through what he saw in his illusion and you wanted to get back at me, I used your anger against you, you were so intent on cursing me you lost all awareness of your surroundings and therefore Harry's position, you were aiming at me and missed. Harry knows you would never hurt him, just as he would never hurt you."

"Never." Agreed Harry.

"I was demonstrating how anger can cloud your judgement, it can be very useful in a fight but you must not let it take over completely. Now….back to work."

They nodded and stood, Harry helping Fleur up.

"My original reason for that exercise was to show you that I could see exactly where you were going to aim."

Harry's brow creased in confusion.

"When you fire a spell you both point and cast whether silently or otherwise, we are going to try again but this time aim when you are thinking or saying the last syllable that way I won't be able to predict where you are aiming until it is too late."

They both nodded.

"Go." Said Adam quickly, having learnt his lesson from the previous match.

The opening few moments of the challenge were much the same as last time, until Fleur and Harry got the hang of the aiming at the last second, as soon as they grasped that the encounter changed; Adam started moving faster to avoid the curses that were coming ever closer to his body, but having learnt from the previous match the pair were not going to be beaten again.

_Arry _Said Fleur's voice in his head.

_Yes_

_We need to pin him into a corner so he can't escape._

_Yes _He agreed _Aim to drive him as well as to hit_.

Changing his aim, Harry forced Adam to stop dead to avoid running straight into the path of his curse.

He fired again aiming nearer his target but still in front of Adam as to ensure he would back up.

* * *

Adam smiled internally as the spells impacted the wall in front of him, they had realised that working together they could corner him, it was definitely more of a challenge this time around, he was having to use all his skill short of using magic or his enhanced speed to avoid the incoming spells.

Despite their new technique he was aware that he could still out manoeuvre them but….they needed this victory.

* * *

Adam attempted to duck under the spells only to have one impact where his foot was about to land.

He doubled back, running straight into the corner of the room where he was pinned by Fleur's spells.

He jumped up high, but Fleur anticipated the move allowing her stunner to slam him into the wall before he dropped back to his feet still conscious.

He smiled at the smug pair.

"You used your mental link to communicate didn't you?" He smiled, straightening his coat.

They nodded.

"Thought so….your learning, well done."

The smiles he received made it evident to him that the day's lesson had been learned.

"I think that's enough for today, please practise your silent magic with more powerful spells."

Harry and Fleur smiled at each other before saying their goodbyes to Adam and headed back to their room.

They arrived in time to see one of the House Elves pop out after depositing their late breakfast.

"One day I will find out how they do that." Announced Harry as he held out Fleur's chair for her earning himself one of her one hundred watt smiles.

"What do you want to do for the rest of the day Arry?" Fleur asked before taking a delicate bite out of a croissant.

"Study probably; I'm over half way through your seventh year Defence textbook and three quarters of the way through mine."

"How about we go shopping?" she asked.

"Shopping?" he replied sceptically.

"Yes, shopping. Exchanging currency for goods and services ." She added with a smile.

"Yes thank you, I know what you meant by shopping….but why shopping."

"Well I though you might want to say thank you to one of the people who saved your life." she added with a smile.

"You know I can never thank you enough for what you did Fleur and I will say thank you to you every single day of our lives if I thought I could even pay you back even the slightest for what you did for me." He said taking her hands in his own.

Fleur's blushed deeply at his words "Thank you Arry….but actually I didn't mean me?"

"I will say thank you to Victor every day if you think that will help to."

She laughed lightly "I didn't mean Viktor either. I meant the person whose birthday you missed seven days ago?"

"Who?" he asked confused.

"Ginny."

Harry's eyes flew open.

"It was Ginny's birthday on the eleventh!"

She nodded.

"She never told me," He exclaimed standing up and beginning to pace "Oh God, I've missed her birthday four years running!...I God, I've missed Hermione and Ron's birthdays FIVE years running….What must they think of me?"

Fleur laughed lightly.

"Your laughing," he exclaimed "I've just realised how bad a friend I have been and you laugh at me?"

"I'm sorry Arry," she chuckled "But your reaction was exactly as I predicted and encase your interested Ron's birthday is on the first of March and Eermion….Ermion….Ermione, why does she have to have such an awkward sounding name, Eermione's is on September nineteenth."

He nodded "We definitely need to go shopping then. Oh God, I forgotten Neville's as well, and I even knew when his was…." He turned to her quickly "When are yours, your sisters, your parents, Colette's and Viktor's?" he demanded.

She smiled at him

"Mother's is on February the twenty-eighth, fathers is on March fifth, Gabrielle's is June twelfth and Colette's is on November fifth and I don't know about Viktor's." she replied, knowing exactly what his next question would be and knowing with one hundred percent certainty that she would loose the following debate.

"And yours?"

"Don't worry about mine Arry."

"I insist Fleur;" he said dropping down to his knees in front of her "You rushed around all day to make my birthday perfect, do you really think I am ever going to miss yours again."

She sighed, she had been right.

"Mines September sixteenth, but please Arry don't make a big fuss over me."

"Fleur," he smiled up at her "I promise I am going to make your birthday make mine look like the sort of birthday the Dursley's would have thrown me."

Fleur sighed; it pained her to think of all those birthdays that he missed while living at the Dursley's and she also knew that he would carry out his promise.

"I'm not going to be able to talk you out of this am I?"

"Definitely not." He grinned, standing up "Now, I believe you mentioned shopping, I have five years worth of presents to buy."

She smiled at him, accepting his offered hand.

"Let me just grab my money bag and card." He said jogging over to one of the draws beside the bed and withdrawing the items.

"Card?" she asked.

"Yes. The Goblins at Gringotts are experimenting with Muggle technology called Debit Cards." He explained holding up his card so she can see.

"Dad has one of these for a Muggle bank he has an account for, I used it to pay for our meal at the restaurant though I have no idea how they work."

"I think I know but I'm not sure, I've never actually used one before either. If I am right when they take your card they swipe it and compare it to the four digit number you type in, they send the information electronically to the bank and if the details match the banks then the amount is withdrawn from your account and is put in the other persons account."

"I see," she smiled handing the card back to Harry who was now disguised as Danielle Radcliffe "I thought it would be more complicated than that, I was going to ask if we could go to Gringotts so I could get some money out, I think I'll get one of those cards as well, it could be useful."

"Definitely, you may want to get one of their new money pouches while we are there to, it will save you carrying money around with you unless you need it."

"Sounds like a good idea." She smiled looping her arm through his and leading them out of the door.

As they proceeded down the hall they passed the open door to the training room.

Glancing in as they passed, they were surprised to see a dagger go sailing through the air to impale itself in the bull's-eye of a very small target on the far wall.

Pausing out of curiosity, they gingerly leaned around the doorframe in time to see another knife come flying at the target, again hitting the bulls-eye.

At the other end of the room they could see Adam sitting crossed legged on the floor with half a dozen similar knifes swirling around him.

Fleur gasped, causing Adam's eyes to open suddenly and the blades to stop moving.

"That eager to resume training that you could not wait more than an hour?" he asked.

"Actually we were going shopping," explained Harry.

"How are you doing that?" asked Fleur, gesturing to the floating blades.

"Magic." He replied.

"But you aren't using a wand?"

"Do you use a wand when you summon fire?" he countered.

"I..." began Fleur before realising he was right.

"Wands aren't a requisite to magic, they just help." He explained standing, holding the sides of his coat open allowing the blades to move into several sheaves on the inside "Any number of mediums can be used as a focus for spells."

They nodded at his explanation before moving back towards the door, before they reached the door Harry paused and turned back to him.

"Would you like to come with us?" asked Harry, thinking on the off chance that something went wrong it may be useful to have some backup.

Thinking for a minute Adam turned back to Harry.

"Yes, thank you….I would."

"Do you need to get anything?" asked Fleur.

"No, I'm ready now."

Nodding they turned and moved together down towards the sitting room and the main fireplace.

Meeting the elder Delacour's sitting around a table covered in paperwork, they declined Fleur's offer to join them because of all the paper work and bed them farewell as they entered the fireplace.


	43. CH43 Cloaks And Masks

Chapter 43 – Cloaks And Masks

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:18th August 2001 AD_

_Country:France_

_Location:Paris – Brights Book Store_

_Time:Early Morning_

As Harry picked himself up off of the mat in front of the fireplace at the other end of the Floo he discovered that he was standing in what appeared to be a run down book store whose name translated as 'Brights Book Store'.

It wasn't a dark place or anything remotely unpleasant but the shelves and the furniture all appeared to be a bit worse for wear and could have used a good dusting.

The fire roared as Fleur casually stepped out of the fireplace behind him and casually cast a cleaning charm on his and her robes, Adam's were already clean, presumably he had performed a similar charm before Harry arrived.

Fleur led them around a few shelves, past the front desk where an old slightly frail looking man was sitting (it would not have been strange to think that the man was no longer among the living) to a door at the back of the shop which had been left ajar.

Pushing the door closed she took a hold of the handle and (much to Harry's surprise) slid it straight across the wood until it was on the other side of the door.

Twisting the handle the door opened in the opposite direction allowing sunlight to flood into the store.

Harry stepped across the threshold, blinking several times from the light before his eyes adjusted to the light revealing a long street full of busy witches and wizards.

"Welcome Arry," smiled Fleur "To Merlin's Road."

Harry stared astonished at the street before him.

It was amazing, unlike Diagon Alley it was not bending and full of leaning and bulging buildings surrounding a tiny cobbled street, instead was a long wide paved road, surrounded by tall sculpted grey buildings decorated with pillars and elegantly sculpted statues.

"Wow."

"Indeed." Grinned Fleur.

"It's….It's like Diagon Alley, but it looks professional," he said "Not just a strange collection of weird shops crammed together into a small space."

"It was based on Diagon Alley," explained Adam coming through and closing the door behind him "The designers saw how we had done it and decided to outdo us, this road is a lot busier than Diagon Alley as a lot of parents come here from around Europe."

"Why?" Harry asked.

"It's nice and central, you have a very large Wizarding shopping area roughly in-between Durmstrang, Hogwarts and Beauxbatons, it is the largest shopping area for wizards in Europe, the shop keepers all have permanent translation charms around their shops and it has more and larger shops than Diagon Alley."

"Oh." He nodded before Fleur took his arm and led him purposefully down the street.

As they walked along Harry saw many similar shops to those of Diagon Alley, there was an apothecary, a shop selling owls and other magical creatures (some of which Harry barely recognised), a restaurant, a very large bookstore (they would never be able to drag Hermione away), a smaller café, several robe fitting stores, a couple of joke shops and standing right at the end of the street; the largest building was that of the Paris branch of Gringotts bank.

Fleur walked them straight through the main doors of the bank, passed the armoured Goblins and the warnings to thieves and moved straight towards the head cashier.

Clearing her throat lightly the aged cashier lethargically looked up before realising who was in front of him and straightening up.

"Lady Delacour, Viscount Gryffindor, how may I assist you?"

"I wish to make a withdrawal as well as purchasing a money bag and debit card." Fleur replied.

"Which account do you wish to make the withdrawal from and which would you like the money bag and debit card to be linked to?"

"My personnel account not the Delacour Vault." She replied.

"Of course Lady Delacour, please follow me and I will take you to your vault, the paper work for the card and money bag will be ready upon your return."

He led the three through a doorway to where several carts were waiting for them.

Harry got in first and helped Fleur into the wobbling vehicle earning him a smile.

Once seated the carts started to roll its way down the tracks, past many vaults and through many levels until finally they slowed to a halt.

"Vault 956." Announced the Goblin, getting out of the cart "Key please."

Fleur took Harry and Adam's offered hands and climbed out of the cart before handing her key over.

Idly Harry wondered why the Goblin hadn't asked for the lamp until he realised the lamp was hovering in the air beside him, probably an enchantment or maybe Adam was levitating it.

The Goblin slid the key into the lock then returned the key and stood back as the door swung open.

As soon as the door opened Fleur entered the vault.

Harry waited in the doorway for her to get whatever it was she was collecting, not thinking it right to enter someone else's vault without their permission.

Though he does not enter he can still see into the vault, it is nowhere near as large as the Potter Vault but is larger than his Trust Account, inside like in his own vault are several large stacks of money both Muggle and Magical as well as several bookshelves and trunks.

He watches as Fleur walked around the vault, examining the books until she finds one she wants then flicks her wand in the direction of one of the open trunks, stacking the volumes neatly inside.

After several minutes she smiles in satisfaction before shrinking the trunk and placing it in her pocket.

"I need to brush up on my Magical History." she explains at his questioning look "I was in my seventh year of Beauxbatons during the Tournament so other than Veela history I haven't really made an effort to remember it with the level of detail that teaching will require."

He nodded his understanding before offering her his arm and leading her back out of the vault to where Adam and the Goblin were waiting.

Once they had returned to the surface Fleur quickly signed her name with a flourish and received her new card and pouch before they turned and headed out of the Bank and back into Merlin's Road.

After several seconds Harry paused and looked back at the bank.

"What is it Arry?"

"I'm disguised as Daniel yes?"

"Yes." Nodded Fleur, realising she too had just broken his cover by calling him by name "What about it?"

"Well that Goblin called me Viscount."

Fleur thought for a moment, looked back towards the bank then back to Harry.

"He did, didn't he?"

"Goblins are not so easily fooled by glamour spells," explained Adam "But there is another reason why he knew who you were."

"What?"

"You're still wearing your House Ring."

Glancing down at his hand Harry discovered that he was right.

"Oh."

Adam waved his arm over Harry's hand and the ring disappeared.

"It will reappear when you remove the rest of the spells," He explained "I may be able to come up with a faster way of disguising yourself. Now I believe we had some shopping to do."

He nodded and directed them towards the large book store.

"I think I better do Hermione first, she's the simplest to buy for, anything to expand her knowledge." He chuckled.

"Why don't you try to get her something different as well as the library." suggested Fleur with a grin though with she was making a serious point.

Harry thought for a moment "It would be an interesting experiment, any suggestions?"

"I have one," smiled Adam "I will tell you about it later."

"Want to give us any clues?" asked Harry.

"I will just say that I noticed how she uses her fingers."

The others both stopped and looked at him, not quite sure what to make of the previous comment.

"How she uses her fingers." Asked Harry.

"Yes, do not worry it is nothing inappropriate but I get the feeling that she will like what you get her."

They turned back from him cautiously before entering the large shop, the inside of which looked like an old library with lots of old wooden shelves that stretched up out of the reach of even the tallest person.

Harry walked around the store for a long time before he found just the right books to buy for Hermione and even one or two to buy Ron, Ginny and Neville.

They then headed out into the street having paid for their purchases and asking for them to be delivered to the Chateau.

They then moved towards the Quidditch Supply shop to get a couple more presents for Ron and Ginny. Harry would be astonished if they could not find something for both of them in there.

After a long time browsing through many shops Harry finally managed to get the number of presents down so that he only needed one present for each person, he was amazed at some of the stuff the shops sold but was very glad that they did, it simplified his search greatly, he had taken Adam's suggestion for Hermione's fourth gift but was very surprised when Adam had told him what it was.

That left one present each for Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville and or course Fleur who he hadn't bought anything for yet but was determined to make it the best present of the lot.

After many hours Fleur had strategically guided him towards one of the more expensive and exclusive looking clothing shops called Madam Fontaine's.

The inside was even more spectacular than the outside with rich fabrics laying over every surface and beautiful gowns and robes displayed around the large room. In the middle of the room was a raised stool presumably for the customers to stand on while they were being fitted; around the stool on three sides were a series of mirrors allowing the person being fitted to see themselves but with a couple of metres of empty space around the person being fitted to allow the fitters to move around and alter the garments being tried on, there appeared to a similar fitting area on either side of each set of mirrors, Harry guessed that there were probably four in total arranged back to back forming the shape of a plus sign with the gaps between the fitting areas being filled with clothing displays.

A middle ages lady stepped towards them "Good afternoon Sir's, Lady Delacour, what can I do for you today?"

"I wish to have several sets of custom robes and dresses tailored appropriate for use in a teaching roll at Hogwarts made for myself and several sets of robe and smart teaching attire made for this gentleman." She smiled looking to Harry.

"Fleur I…." he started to complain only to be cut short.

"You are not going to win this one Daniel; I AM going to buy you these robes and before you complain too much you already have some work robes so you wont need too many."

"Yes, but you paid for them too, please Fleur can't I…."

"No." she said stubbornly, stepping up onto a slightly raised platform as an assistant moved forward and started taking her measurements.

Before he could say another word he felt Adam take a hold of his shirt and pull him around a corner to another similar fitting area where he pushed him up onto the platform.

As he went to object he felt someone raise his arms and a tape measure appear and begin to measure him up.

"Shouldn't you be on my side?" he asked, looking to where Adam was leaning against the wall.

"He knows women well enough to know that your girlfriend has made up her mind so there is no point in arguing." A familiar voice whispered in his ear.

"Colette?" he said spinning around to face the grinning woman "What are you doing here?"

"Don't you remember Fleur telling you that my father owned several clothing shops? Well, you're in one." She grinned bowing "Colette Fontaine, Deputy Manager at your service."

"Deputy Manager?"

"Yes, technically I am the Manager but it works better for my father to make it look like he has control over all our stores but he rarely interferes with the daily running and if you are worried about Fleur paying for you, she knows well enough that when I am in the store she has no chance of paying, such an important customer brings in plenty of business."

"Oh." He replied, not quiet sure what else to say.

She laughed lightly before returning to measuring him up, enjoying teasing him by giving his behind a quick pinch as she finished causing him to squeak.

She laughed again as she turned and went to get some clothes for him to try on.

"I'm not quite sure who she would get along better with," he said to Adam "Hermione because of her liking for books and learning or Tonks because of her teasing, joking attitude?"

"Tonks." Adam replied after a moments thought "You could ask her to make her hair longer and bushier and then she can meet both requirements."

Harry snorted "Yeah, I can just imagine that."

Colette came back moments later, her arms laden with a huge pile of material.

Dropping the pile she drew her wand and started flicking the individual bits of material at him, when the material hit him it flattened against his skin before readjusting itself to be the correct size.

When all the pieces were against him they formed the shape of his body.

He watched interested as Colette walked around him, tugging, poking and adjusting the material as she saw fit. This was unlike his previous custom fitting when he got his first set of robes; all they had done was to take his measurements before hurrying them out of the shop.

After many minutes she smiled to herself before waving her wand at him again, fusing all the materials together so that it became shirt shaped.

"Take the top off please." she asked as she continued to adjust his trousers until she was satisfied with them and telling him to remove those as well, luckily this had all gone on over the top of his ordinary clothes as he really didn't want to be nearly naked in the middle of a shop in front of his mates best friend.

When she had both pieces of material she waved her wand again and they fused together forming a replica of his chest and legs (with certain private parts edited out).

"This way I can measure up materials when you are not here." She said, answering his unasked question. "From this template I can very quickly alter any garment to fit you perfectly," she smiled and ran her hand over the model "You have a very nice chest Harry."

Harry blushed deeply as Colette laugh as she walked towards him "You need to learn to take my teasing Harry; I will be doing it a lot when we start working together. Now, go and see Fleur so she can decide what she thinks she's buying you." She smiled, giving him a prod in the right direction.

Walking around the screen he saw Fleur wearing only her underwear in the middle of changing dresses in full view of the shop windows.

"Fleur!" he hissed out "What are you doing, we're in a shop, everyone outside can see you!"

She chuckled "Oh Arry, the glass isn't real, it works the same way as the Wizarding hospital in London, from outside the shop it appears that three customers are inside but it shows them browsing or being measured and when we are changing it looks like a curtain has been drawn across the front of the shop."

"But what if someone comes in?" he emphasised, trying to get her to comprehend the situation.

She smiled brightly at him as she pulled the dress she was currently trying on up and began to do up the fasteners "Arry, haven't you wondered why this shop is completely deserted except for us, this shop is very expensive and very exclusive, each customer gets a private fitting, the shop is closed to all others until we are finished even if we take all day and there are no men working the shop front so we will only get seen by the women fitting us."

"Oh." He nodded before lowering his head in embarrassment before beginning to walk back around to his fitting area.

"Arry," she said softly, moving off of the platform and moving to take his chin in her hand, raising his face to her own "Don't feel embarrassed, you were trying to defend my honour and my privacy….never feel guilty for that."

He smiled slightly at her before leaning in to kiss her softly on the lips, but despite his reassuring look she knew him well enough to know that he still thought he would loose her to someone else.

"Arry….I promise you I will never let any man see me in less than a swimming costume other than you," she said honestly, opening the link fully and pouring her feelings for him down it making him temporarily unstable at the weight of emotion that had just hit him, satisfied that she had proved her point she stood back.

"Now Arry, how do I look?"

Opening his eyes after getting his body stable again he looked at her and the dress she was wearing.

It was a deep blue (an unusual colour for her), reached all the way to the floor, was held to her body by two loops of material around three centimetres wide which rose over her shoulders and came down to attach to the back of her dress. The dress clung to her form, following her curves, flowing with and enhancing them to the point of perfection.

"You look….so beautiful." He replied slowly, unable to think of anything to even begin to describe her.

She sent him another hundred watt smile before walking up to him and giving him the lightest of kisses on his lips leaving him staring into space.

"I think you've broken him." Grinned Colette.

They spent several hours in the shop, trying on garment after garment all of which were chosen by Fleur for herself or Harry with the occasional contribution by Colette which were normally rather skimpy, revealing or provocative items of sleepwear.

After finally finishing ordering their new wardrobes Fleur and Colette argued for about ten minutes about paying, Fleur insisting that she was going to pay and Colette insisting otherwise, at one point both their hands had been smoking and Harry was sure that they were going to come to blows, luckily Adam stepped in, giving them both a blast of his charm and before either of them really noticed it he had paid for all the clothes himself and had led them out of the shop.

It took about ten minutes for Fleur to realise what had happened by which time they were all seated in a French café sipping drinks, when she tried to insist on paying him back she lost that argument as well.

After finishing their drinks (that Fleur managed to pay for) they wondered around the road, looking in shop windows, occasionally browsing inside until Harry caught sight of a small shop on a street that led down the side of Gringotts.

It was a very small shop, the styling and aged look was comparable to Ollivander's, giving off that traditional and slightly worn feel that gave you that comforting feeling.

Leading them towards the shop he looked through the window but due to the dazzling sun he could not see inside.

"This shop is supposed to be good for all things rare and exotic." Explained Fleur.

Looking up Harry read the name of the shop:

_Madam Énigmes._

"Mrs Enigmas," translated Harry "That's different."

"Indeed." Agreed Adam, moving past to hold the door open for them.

Entering the shop Harry saw that the shop was a lot more like Ollivander's than it looked from the outside. The walls were dark stained wood on which were mounted many shelves holding the strangest collections of artefacts that Harry had ever seen, at the back of the shop was a high counter, behind which were shelves upon shelves upon shelves all filled to the brim with boxes and cabinets of all sizes, some containing items that Harry could not even describe.

They separated as they began to walk around the small store examining the various shelves.

Harry looked at one rack entitled 'Magical Focuses'. In a case under the sign were a whole series of objects ranging from phoenix feathers to Chimera hair and even a basilisk fang. On the shelf below there were a series of uncut branches all just longer than your average wand and divided up into species. On the last shelf were a series of crystals, varying in size, shape and colour.

"Focusing crystals," explained Adam, coming up beside him "They help focus and channel your magic. Just like with certain Perspex blocks can refract or focus light, these crystals do the same, normally a lot more efficiently than wands."

"Why don't we use them instead then?" he asked.

"They are hard to find naturally and even harder to create, not to mention very expensive, I am surprised there are so many, they are very difficult to come by, as are some of these cores."

Harry only heard half of what had been said as another item had caught his eye. Just to the right of the focuses was a glass case, inside of which was a mask.

The mask only covered the top half of the head, not extending much further than the nose, it varied in colour between a grey and black metal with silver edges. The mask had no holes for the eyes just a series of thick overlapped vertical plates that made up the cover for the upper part of the head, five of these did not curve back over the head as the rest did to grip the skull, but instead stopped bending and continued on straight as soon as the forehead was reached, thinning to sharp silver tipped points making the mask look bigger and more threatening than it was.

Harry felt strangely drawn to the mask, he couldn't identify the feeling, maybe it was some magic on the artefact but he did not know.

"Adam," asked Fleur off to their right, drawing Harry's attention away from the mask "What are these for?"

Turning to her they saw her looking at a basket full of tall branches most of which were up to and over six foot in length.

"These," Adam replied going over to inspect them "These are for making into staffs."

"Staffs?" they both asked at once.

"Yes staffs." Replied a gravely voice from behind the counter.

Turning they saw a skinny old women with heavily greying black hair, wrinkled features and a hard stare.

"They are a lot more powerful than wands and are more adaptable to many branches of magic, if you'll excuse the turn of phrase." She explained moving out from behind the counter, moving towards them on a pair of tiny legs "Not many witches and wizard can use them as they require a certain level of magical power that most witches and wizards simply do not have access to." She turned her intense stare towards Adam who met her look unblinking "You do….can I interest you in any magical focuses?"

"I am afraid not," he replied "I prefer to get my magical cores from the source so as to fully utilise their power."

"Very wise," she grinned displaying a row crookedly spaced teeth before turning to Harry and Fleur "Now dears, what can I do for you?"

"I need some specials presents for some friends of mine; I don't mind how expensive it's going to be I just want them to be special."

"Are your friends scattered around or all gathered in on place?" she asked.

"A bit of both."

"Do they often get into trouble?"

"The trouble normally gets us rather than the other way around." He nodded blushing slightly.

"I think I have just the thing." She grinned again, turning and moving back behind the counter while summoning a long flat box from the back of the store.

She placed the box on the desk and opened it for them to see.

Harry's eyes grew wide as he looked at the contents of the box; his mouth slowly formed a grin.

"I'll take them."


	44. CH44 ROP Part 1: En Garde

Chapter 44 – Rites Of Passage (Part 1) – En Garde

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:25th August 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:Morning_

As another morning rolled around Harry and Fleur prepared for the day ahead, following what had become the usual routine.

Fleur rolled out of bed before gliding across the room dressed in one of her silver night dresses while Harry watched his mate in awe before finally climbing out of bed himself.

After the usual low fat high energy breakfast they make their way to the training room where they where to meet Adam for another lesson in defence.

As they enter the room they see not just Adam but all of their teachers; Jenny and John Wright, Polly and Viktor as well.

"Err….what's going on?" Harry asked nervously.

"Get ready class," chirped Polly "It's the day of your finals."

A flash of fear passed through the pair as they realised that they were going to be on trial, they had to prove they had picked up everything they had been taught.

"You will each be tested both together and individually in order to assess you skills and to prove to us that we haven't been wasting our time." Explained Viktor, though the harshness of his words were softened by the fact that he was grinning.

"First I will test Fleur's Physical Defence skills while Viktor and Adam try to gain entry to Harry's mind."

"Both at once!" exclaimed Fleur.

"Yep," Grinned Polly "Choose your weapons."

Fleur gave a quick kiss to Harry before running over to the wall that the weapons they trained with hung.

Picking a pair of the sharpened eastern knives with three prongs that Harry could never remember the name of (something like sai), she turned and took up a stance opposite Polly.

As Harry turned back to his opponents he felt like his mind had been hit with a sledge hammer as Adam dived straight into his mind, accessing it as easily as a needle penetrating skin.

He barely managed to raise his shield in time to prevent Viktor doing so as well, he could feel Viktor trying to force his way through his shields but Harry held strong, turning to the problem of Adam he was alarmed to discover that he could not find him; he knew he was in there with him but he had no idea where, he was laying in wait.

He could still feel Viktor pressing himself as hard as he could into his shields, continually changing the memories he was trying to access, trying to keep him distracted so that Adam could act.

Harry smiled internally as he put his plan into action.

He thought something like this might happen at some point and he had worked out a strategy to defeat any intruder to his mind.

As he felt Viktor launch another assault against his defences he weakened his Occlumency shield slightly giving the appearance that he was weakening, Adam could almost certainly tell that he was deliberately weakening his shields but he remained still somewhere in his thoughts.

Viktor had obviously sensed his weakness and increased the force against his shields.

Harry let his shields waver before allowing an opening to appear.

Viktor surged through the gap into his mind heading straight for his memories, following a path that Harry had 'accidentally' left undefended.

He put up a weak defence which Viktor quickly got around before heading straight for the memories that Harry wanted him to look at.

No sooner had Viktor entered the memories when Harry slammed his shields down behind him tapping Viktor in his thoughts.

He heard a yell of pain as Viktor experienced the memories before lowering his shields and catapulting the stunned Viktor out of his mind before turning back to search for Adam.

He scanned his memories looking for anything out of place.

Wondering through his thoughts he looked at each memory in turn, Adam was good, Adam was very good; he had the mental power to disguise himself as a memory instead of just hiding in one if he wanted.

He passed into the next memory; he found himself looking at himself, Ron and Hermione walking down one of the corridors.

He turned around and began to back out when something dawned on him.

Why could he see himself if it was his memory.

Turning back to the memory he was too slow in raising his shields to stop Adam launching himself at him.

The world went black and he felt himself hit the floor.

It was several minutes later when he regained consciousness to find Jenny kneeling beside him, her wand in hand as she performed some routine Check-up Health Spells, turning his head he could see John doing the same to a very shaken looking Viktor.

"Are you ok?" he asked rather shakily.

"Thing so," Harry nodded hauling himself to his feet "How are you feeling?"

"Very shaken," he replied "What were those memories?"

"They were all my very worst memories; the Dursley's, the confrontation with Quirrel, seeing Ginny in the Chamber of Secrets, facing the Basilisk, Hermione petrified, confronting the Dementor's, the Graveyard, the Ministry, Sirius and the Veil, all the pain I experienced from my scar and what it felt like to have Voldemort in my head."

"How on earth did you manage that?" asked Viktor.

"You can thank Snape for the idea," he explained "When he tried to teach me he always made me relive my worst memories and the pain and emotions associated with them; so I thought what would it be like to experience all that at once. When Adam showed me how to order my memories I gathered them all close together and positioned other neutral memories in a trail towards them, so when I weakened my shields you forced your way in and walked straight into the trap allowing me to slam my shields down behind you for several seconds before ejected you."

He turned to Adam who was busy watching the continuing duel between Polly and Fleur, Fleur was the larger and stronger of the two giving her a longer reach but that also made her a bigger target, Polly on the other hand was smaller and quicker but did not have the range that Fleur's longer arms gave her.

Both were sporting several cuts, gashes and bruises but were still going strong, Fleur's triple blades clashing against the pair of short swords Polly was wielding, neither willing to give up.

"Did I pass?" he asked turning back to Adam.

"Definitely." He nodded still watching the fight "You put up a good shield preventing entry to those not already in your mind and when you knew that you had to remove one of your opponents so you could deal with the other you very effectively lulled one of them into a trap before ejecting him from your mind and then you started searching for the other, your only fault was that your reaction time was too slow," he turned to Viktor. "Would you do the honours?"

Viktor nodded before drawing his wand and pointing it at Harry.

"As an authorised Occlumens Assessor of the Occlumens Council I hereby announce that you are a licensed Occlumens Master in the eyes of Wizarding Law." A small jet of white light flashed from Viktor's wand and impacted Harry's chest before vanishing "Congratulations Harry, now we just need to work on your Legilimency."

A thump was heard from the other side of the room drawing their attention.

Polly was laying on the other side of the room, both her hands were pinned behind her back, her swords lay on the floor beside her while a very wild and out of breath Fleur straddled her with both her knives at her neck in such a way that it would be impossible to move her head without slicing or impaling herself.

"I yield." Panted Polly.

"At last," Breathed Fleur, dropping her knives and rolling off her and onto her back breathing heavily "I thought….we would be fighting….until one of us died of old age."

"It was beginning to look that way." Agreed Polly.

Harry dropped down beside his mate and handed her a pepper-up potion that he had taken the precaution of taking wherever he went.

"Thank you." She nodded, downing the potion.

"Congratulations Fleur," smiled Adam as he, Viktor and the Wright's walked over "You just defeated a Navy SEAL."

"A what?" he asked.

"A SEAL."

"Ex-SEAL if you don't mind." corrected Polly.

"United States Navy Sea, Air and Land," Adam explained "Polly was a member of the American Navy Elite Special Operation Force."

"You were in the military?" asked Viktor.

"You'd never know it would you." She grinned from the floor having still not moved after the fight.

"Aren't you a bit…." tried Harry "A little on the….."

"Short side," she finished.

"Maybe you should have tried vertically challenged." Contributed Adam.

"Yep," grinned Polly, ignoring Adam's comment "I used glamour spells to make myself look taller, it worked wonderfully for seven years until an entire platoon saw a rocket pass straight through where they thought my head was, as we were in the middle of a battle it was easier for me to create an explosion and Apparate out rather than trying to cast multiple memory charms while under heavy fire….I received a posthumous Silver Star for it, I managed to talk the American Congress of Wizardry into helping me to get the Silver Star awarded non-posthumously as I was already in the pipe line to receive it before I was 'killed'."

"Right." Nodded Harry whilst he and Adam helping Fleur and Polly to their feet.

"Adam, can you test Harry I don't have the energy, Fleur took a lot out of me."

"Certainly," he nodded before turning to Harry "Choose your weapons."

Guessing from his phrasing that Adam was going to take two weapons Harry moved over to the wall and removed a pair of rapiers instead of the usual one, he had not tried wielding two but if Adam was going to be using two weapons then he really needed two to counter them.

A

Turning around he was surprised to see that Adam was only wielding one weapon (another rapier, though more decorative with a larger gold wire hand guard).

"First blood drawn from the torso. En garde!" he chanted bringing his sword up in salute before positioning it down to his side, not bothering with a defensive position.

Harry mirrored his movements but brought his sword up into a defensive stance.

"Oh and one more thing," Adam nodded "You can use magic in this duel as well as physical defence...If you can. Begin."

Harry launched himself at his opponent bringing his sword around to slash at Adam's stomach, he knew the hit would not connect but he had to find out how good a dueller Adam was, he knew Adam was better than Polly with this particular weapon as she had told them as such while teaching them what she knew about the use of the weapon, their swords clashed as Harry brought his second sword around at Adams head.

Adam ducked and pushing against his sword throwing Harry away from him before bringing his sword around to parry.

* * *

Fleur and the others looked on fascinated, watching the two duellist swinging their swords around in complex arks in order to strike at the other, Fleur was aware that Harry had never fought using two rapiers before and they had both been told how good a swordsman Adam was, even with only one sword Adam still had the upper hand, she really hoped that Harry passed this test, though she couldn't see how he could.

* * *

Harry was constantly on the defence, he couldn't hold Adam off long enough to strike, he was far to fast for him to keep up.

Receiving another blunt force impact as Adam put his weight into a blow sending him tumbling to the floor.

He quickly rolled onto his back brining one sword up to block but Adam hadn't approached, he was standing several feet away waiting for Harry to regain his feet.

Remembering Adam's instructions at the beginning of the duel Harry gently shook his arm allowing his wand to drop down into his hand, sliding the tip into a gap between the wire hand guard of his right sword ensured it was concealed from Adam's sight.

Rolling to his right he swung his right hand round in an ark bringing it down against Adam's own.

The swords clashed as Harry's right hand came up pinning Adam's sword between his, pointing his sword at Adam's hand he shot a disarmer sending the sword flying away from them to impale the floor.

Adam spun around and ran towards his sword but Harry wasn't going to loose now, taking of after him he caught up as his opponent tucked and rolled to retrieve his sword before spinning around, just in time to catch the swipe of Harry's sword in his lower stomach just cutting through the skin.

* * *

Fleur and the others held their breath at the sight in front of them.

Harry had won, he had beaten Adam, she had no idea how but he had done it but he had.

They all watched as Adam stood and looked down at his torn shirt, he brought a hand to his stomach and it came away bloody.

"Well done," He congratulated, turning his gaze to a proud looking Harry "You beat me."

Harry smiled wildly before bringing his swords up to salute his opponent.

Adam mirrored his movements before turning and walking towards the door casually banishing his sword back towards its place on the wall.

* * *

Dimitri looked on curiously from his place by the door watching as the defeated Adam returned his weapon to the wall before walking towards him and the exit.

As he walked out of the room and down the corridor, Dimitri turned to follow.

"You let him win didn't you?" stated Dimitri once they were out of hearing range.

Adam came to a stop but did not turn.

"What makes you think that?"

"Even if you are not all powerful compared to us you are virtually omnipotent, I find it hard to believe that a sixteen year old who had only started receiving training with a sword this summer could defeat a being who is as old as the universe itself."

"If I used my full power Dimitri I could destroy this planet."

"You know very well that that is not what I meant," replied Dimitri hotly, annoyed that Adam was still not admitting it "You didn't use a single bit of magic during the duel, he had twice as many weapons as you, your skill was evidently greater seeing as you could hold off two swords with just one and you ran to get your sword rather than using magic as you did to summon and banish it, you deliberately lost the duel and I want to know why."

Adam sighed and turned around to face him.

"If there is one thing I have learned about Harry it is that he is a master at assigning guilt to himself, if I had defeated him he would have been feeling miserable for days, believing that he could not master the sword, he would also feel guilty for letting us all down and would likely not have the confidence to win such a battle if the situation occurred again, by losing to him he has gained confidence in his abilities, he now 'knows' he can defend against an opponent like me, he now 'knows' that he has not let everyone down and he now 'knows' that he will have the confidence to draw his sword in battle in the coming war."

Dimitri stared into Adam's intense eyes for several seconds, he could see he was telling the truth and the look on Harry's face when he had won confirmed what Adam had said.

"I understand." He nodded, turning back towards the room where he could here the sounds of duelling, probably Fleur and Harry duelling the Wright's.

"If he realises like you have I shall simply tell him the truth."

"You will tell him what you just told me?" asked Dimitri over his shoulder.

"Yes, but first I will explain that I was not pitying him, that I was not using magic because my magic is too powerful for friendly duelling and that I was fighting using the skill that a normal human could have, all of which is true."

Adam turned around and headed of back down the corridor before adding one last statement.

"I will not lie to Harry, for any reason…. Not ever."


	45. CH45 ROP Part 2: Assault On Beauxbatons

Chapter 45 – Rites Of Passage (Part 2) – Assault On Beauxbatons 

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:25th August 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:Noon_

Pleased with his accomplishment of defeating Adam, Harry was looking forward (with confidence) to the rest of the tests that were to follow later that day.

He was currently standing in the room he had been in during his first few days at the Chateau focusing on his Animagus transformation.

With his eyes closed he focused hard on what his hands would look like when he was a stag, he could feel the changes begin, he felt the hairs on the back of his hands lengthen and change colour, he could feel the bones in his hand rearrange fusing together and changing in shape.

Opening his eyes he looked down at his new cloven hooves.

Closing his eyes again he focused on spreading the change up his arms.

According to Delphine transforming was not a very pleasant experience during early attempts, this was an opinion that Harry definitely agreed with, it was not overly pleasant to here and feel your bones and tissues moving around each other and change shape.

Opening his eyes again he looked down at his now fully transformer arms.

"Well done Harry," smiled Delphine as she came in through the doorway "Your progressing well."

"Thanks, I'm surprised I'm getting it so fast."

"I told you it would be easier to transform into your natural form."

"You were right, though it still takes me time to transform, McGonagall can do it in a second."

"She has been practicing longer." Grinned Delphine "Just give it some time, now….how about you try your hind legs."

Smiling Harry closed his eyes and focused on the look of his feet, imagining the feeling of cloven toes rather than fleshy pads.

Slowly he felt the bones begin to shift, his feet shrinking and changing shape.

"Err Harry, you may want to…."

As his feet shrank Harry began to loose his balance, he waved his cloven front legs about in an attempt to steady himself but to no avail as he fell towards the floor, his shoulder exploding in pain when he landed on it causing him to yell out.

"Never mind." Finished Delphine, kneeling down beside him drawing her wand, waving her wand over his shoulder she sighed "I was afraid of that, you dislocated your shoulder when you fell."

"How on earth did I manage to do that?" Asked Harry through gritted teeth.

"You have the shoulder of a human but the front leg of a deer; they are not designed to work together so your shoulder was very weak and prone to damage, brace yourself I'm going to put your shoulder back." She explained taking a gentle hold of his arm.

"Ok." He nodded.

"On three, ready?"

He nodded.

"Okay, one….two."

"AARRRGGGHH!! What happened to three!" he demanded.

"You would have tensed on three," she explained "Your muscles were still relaxed on two, that may ache a bit but you will be fine."

"Arry!" cried Fleur as she charged into the room her wand in hand, only to see her mother crouched over a half transformed Harry "What did you do?" she demanded, turning to her mother.

"I put his shoulder back in after he dislocated it."

"How did he do that?" she asked worried.

"He tried to transform his back legs while he was still standing up, you can transform back now Harry."

"Thanks." He nodded, returning his body to normal, his annoyed tone not phasing Delphine in the slightest.

"When you try to transform your torso lay on your side." She added before turning back to Fleur "When are the rest of the tests starting?"

"In a few minutes, Adam sent me to…."

She never got the chance to finish her sentence as Dimitri ran into the room.

"We've just got word, Beauxbatons is under attack."

* * *

"How are we going to get there?" shouted Harry as they ran towards the training room.

"Portkey is the fastest," replied Dimitri from beside him "I can legally create one that will pass through the wards."

"Your job really does come in handy sometimes." Commented Harry as they made a sharp right into the training room.

Moving to the wall Harry grabbed a pair of rapiers fitted to a belt and rapidly put it around his waist.

"Where are Fleur and the others?" he asked turning back to Dimitri who was casting a spell on a piece of rope.

"Right here." Replied Adam as he, Viktor, Fleur, Delphine and the rest of their trainers came running in through the door, most moving straight towards the weapons.

"It's ready," announced Dimitri holding up the rope "Everyone grab on."

* * *

They appeared in the middle of the grounds of Beauxbatons just in time to see an explosion go off to their right.

"Everybody down." Yelled Adam as another blasting hex flew over their heads.

Drawing one of his swords Harry saw Adam raise a shield over the group giving them a chance to get their bearings.

Further down the lawn were a mass of forty or so Death Eaters which appeared to have just crossed the ward line, up behind them Harry could see that the school had been locked down, the main doors were closed and the windows in the Circle Building had disappeared leaving nothing but walls.

"Dam it, they've already gotten through the wards," shouted Dimitri "We need to move towards the school."

"I can keep the shield up but everyone must stay close." Replied Adam "Lets move."

They could see and hear the spells ricocheting of the shield, as they reached the main doors they heard some one yell out from above them before the doors opened just wide enough for a person to squeeze through.

"Quickly, inside." Gasped Delphine, not slowing down to pass through the door.

As soon as the last person passed through the gap the doors slammed shut and many locking charms were cast upon it by the group of seventh years gathered in the Entrance Hall.

"Professor!" exclaimed Monique moving towards him, luckily he had remembered to put on his disguise before they left "Thank goodness you're here, the school is under attack."

"We know that Monique," replied Fleur "We just outran them."

"No I mean from inside, there are Death Eaters inside the school; they came in through the Floo Network before Madam Maxime was able to block the grate."

"How many?" asked Adam.

"At least ten probably more, Madam Maxime and the other Professors are trying to track them down while we wait for the Auror's."

"Monique, you and the others stay here while we help round up the Death Eaters," commanded Harry turning to the others "We need to round them up as quickly as possible, Viktor, Polly and Dimitri search the Ring Building to the left, Jenny, John, Delphine search to the right, Fleur, Adam and I will check the tower, everyone understand?"

The others nodded drawing various weapons and heading of in the directions ordered.

"Go!" he barked before turning and leading Fleur and Adam towards the inner doors towards allowing entry to the courtyard and the Tower, another group of seventh years commanded by Violette gave him a quick nod before opening the door a crack to allow them to pass through.

Adam moved through the gap first, extending his hand out he erected a shield out through the gap to encompass the area on the other side of the door allowing the others to squeeze through without risk of being cursed.

As the door closed behind them curses started landing on the shield before ricocheting off to strike the inner walls of the Ring Building.

Looking for the source of the curses Harry could see five Death Eaters advancing from the doorway of the Tower.

"The shield is unidirectional." Explained Adam firing a short burst of blue magic through the shield towards the Death Eaters causing them to dive out of the way as the magic created a large explosion against one of the open doors of the Tower behind them, shaking it violently on its hinges.

Following his lead Fleur and Harry began launching curses back at the Death Eaters forcing them to take cover as the trio advanced on them under the cover of the shield.

They managed to hit two of the Death Eaters when they leaned around the doorframe in an attempt to fire back leaving three still standing, as they got closer to the Tower a massive flash of purple light impacted the top of the shield causing Adam to drop to the ground holding his arm in pain.

Looking up Harry saw a mirror image of Adam hovering in the air halfway up the side of the Tower.

"Oh Sorry brother, did that hurt?" he taunted, laughing evilly.

They did not get the chance to react to the new comer as the remaining Death Eaters emerged from cover and began launching a nasty array of curses at them.

"You take care of the Death Eaters, I'll deal with him!" shouted Adam jumping to his feet, drawing a large curved blade from an invisible sheave to his side. He then proceeded to leap into the air straight towards his twin.

Harry and Fleur did not get the chance to find out what happened as another group of Death Eaters started firing spells down at them from the Towers windows.

Harry rolled to the side as two rippling purple spells passed through the space he had just been standing in only to dissipate like electricity against the wall behind them.

Rolling over he fired a pair of spells at the Death Eaters causing two of them to slump to the floor as the muscle relaxing charms took affect.

Jumping to his feet he took an evasive course towards the remaining Death Eater as he futilely tried to dodge Fleur's curses and retaliate at the same time.

As he got within five meters of the target he leaped into the air raising his sword, slicing it across the stomach of the Death Eater causing him to crumple to the floor grasping at his stomach, screaming in pain.

Breathing deeply Harry looked down at his sword, the blood sliding down its length dropping to the floor, and then to the injured Death Eater slowly bleeding out, a pool of blood forming around him.

What should he do with the dieing man?

Put a stasis field around him?

Stun him?

Leave him?

Or finish him off?

The question was answered for him when Fleur cast a stasis charm around the Death Eater before moving over to him, her eyes filled with concern.

* * *

Fleur moved towards her mate, the sounds of the curses colliding the grass behind her falling into the background as concern for her mate grew, knowing how he reacts to deaths he thinks are his fault, how would he react when he actually does cause a death.

Looking to the dieing man on the grass she quickly muttered a stasis charm; if by saving this man she could prevent Harry from withdrawing within himself again then she would do whatever it took.

"Arry….are you ok?"

He looked up at her blankly, no emotion showing in his eyes, the very though of loosing him to this terrified her.

"He's not dead Arry," she told him forcefully "You didn't kill him."

He didn't react.

Opening up the link as fully as she could she flooded the connection with all the love and feelings she could muster, attempting to blanket out what ever it was he was feeling and bring him back to her.

She saw him let out a breath and his eyes rolled shut as the wave of emotion crashed into him, he wobbled for a moment before his eyes opened slowly, they were not as empty as they had been mere moments before but they were not back to normal either.

"Thank you." He said quietly, giving her a light kiss on the lips before turning and heading into the Tower.

She stood there for an extra second, praying to whatever Gods were listening that he would not change because of this.

Following Harry into the Tower they quickly checked the Great Hall before heading up the Main Staircase.

The sounds of battle could be heard above them as they hurried upwards.

They came to a halt as a jet of red light bounced its way down the staircase and a black cloaked figure got thrown around the corner towards them, unconscious before he hit the ground.

Turning around the corner the pair could see the battle taking place before them, eight Death Eaters were fighting their way upwards forcing who he guessed were some of the Beauxbatons staff backwards up the stairs.

Giving each other a nod they jumped around the corned hurling curses and swinging blades.

The Death Eaters were taken completely by surprise; they began spinning around trying to defend themselves on two fronts but failing miserably as Harry and Fleur were already amongst them cursing them at point-blank range and swiping at their arms and legs with their blades causing them to crumple to the ground and drop their wands as they grasped at their injured arms and legs giving their original opponents the chance to take down the rest of them.

As the last of the Death Eaters hit the floor Harry and Fleur moved towards the teachers.

"Radcliffe, where have you been?" demanded Plaindre moving forward completely confident of her own superiority over him; three other Professors followed her down, their looks showed how annoyed they were at her for her aggression towards their reinforcements.

"Not that it's any of your business….Agnes," returned Harry, pronouncing her name as badly as he could "But I was visiting friends, I believe I am allowed to."

"And what are you doing here Delacour?" she continued ignoring his response.

"That's Lady Delacour, Plaindre." Fleur snarled "If you remember correctly on my last day of schooling I reminded you that as my parents are nobility you are obliged to call me Lady unless I tell you otherwise and I was the one that Daniel was visiting at the time."

"As soon as we heard we came here bringing reinforcements with us." Added Harry.

"For a Duelling Master you seem to have forgotten that fighting is easier when you have numbers of your side, and where pray are these supposed reinforcements?"

The instant she finished speaking the wall to their left exploded sending shrapnel flying out into the hallway.

Harry threw himself around Fleur, shielding her from the flying stone, as he spun around he was just in time to see Adam and his brother come flying out of the hole and explode out through the opposite wall.

As the dust settled and everyone began checking themselves for injuries Agnes turned to glare at Harry.

"What was that?" she demanded.

"That was one of my reinforcements," Harry returned with a smile "Now if we have finished bantering there may still be Death Eaters in the school so shut up before I make you." he turned to the elderly Defence Professor, ignoring the outraged and spluttering Agnes "What else do we know?"

"Olympe and several other Professors chased some Death Eaters up to the top of the Tower we know at least five went back down."

"We've dealt with them but some Death Eaters were firing down at us from the windows."

"We'll check the rooms while you go and help Olympe."

"Agreed, when you are done head back out to the Ring Building, there was a large force coming up the lawn." Said Harry as he and Fleur headed up the stairs, a couple of the Professors quickly greeting Fleur as they passed leaving a highly annoyed Agnes behind them.

As they moved up the stairs they could here the sounds of explosions coming from above them.

Speeding up their ascent they reached the top floor just in time to see a familiar looking green spell erupt through the now destroyed doorway of Harry's Office and impact the opposite wall.

Moving to the side of the door they both turned around the frame, Fleur dropping into a crouch while Harry remained standing.

The sight that greeted them was utter carnage, the bodies of several Professors and Death Eaters littered the floor, bloodied burned or just dead. Three Death Eaters stood over one of the two surviving Professors in the room, but before they could act one of the Death Eaters fired a killing curse at her letting her body slump to the floor.

Harry's eyes flared with anger as he saw his colleagues fall.

Roaring he launched a blasting hex at the murderer, the explosion throwing him back against the wall burned and bleeding heavily.

Fleur jumped into action, firing curses at the others taking out the next Death Eaters just as quickly as the first but the third raised a shield and started to retaliate and unlike the others this one was skilled.

Fleur and the Death Eater engaged in a fire fight while Harry spun on the last of their opponents who was standing over the bleeding form of Olympe Maxime.

The last enemy was different, the cloak he wore was thicker and had more layers and he did not wear a mask, just a hood.

The figure stood looking at Harry for several seconds before moving his hands to push back his hood.

Harry's Occlumency training helped to suppress the pain that flowed through his scar, confirming what he already knew the figures name was….

Voldemort.


	46. CH46 ROP Part 3: Harry Vs Voldemort

Chapter 46 – Rites Of Passage (Part 3) – Harry Vs Voldemort

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:25th August 2001 AD_

_Country:France – Pic Du Thaume_

_Location:Beauxbatons Academy Of Magic – Professor Radcliffe's Office_

_Time:Afternoon_

Harry's Occlumency training helped to suppress the pain that flowed through his scar, confirming what he already knew the figures name was….

Voldemort.

"Hello Harry, how good to see you again."

"Tom." Harry replied.

"You will address me as Lord Voldemort!" he shouted.

"Why? It is your name isn't it?"

"That name no longer means anything; you will address me as Lord Voldemort!"

"In that case you will address me as Lord Gryffindor." Countered Harry, praying that he could keep Voldemort distracted long enough for either Fleur to defeat the Death Eater or for reinforcements to arrive.

"WHAT!!" roared Voldemort.

The fight on the other side of the room came to halt as the magic in Voldemort's voice resonated around the room.

Unfortunately for Fleur the Death Eater came back to reality first and fired of a Bludgeoning Hex which collided heavily with the side of her head, sending her flying hard into the wall impacting with a crack as her head collided with the stone before falling to the floor unconscious, blood running down the side of her face.

"Fleur!!" cried Harry.

Turning on the laughing Death Eater he saw red. The high pitched laugh told him for certain that it was Bellatrix; she threw her head back letting her hood fall off as she cackled.

"Oh poor little Potter, did the big bad Death Eater hurt your poor little pigeon?" she grinned.

She never got the chance to say anything further as she turned just in time to see Harry's sword swing around.

* * *

Voldemort stared in shock as the head of his favourite servant rolled to the floor at his feet

He looked up at Harry, the blood of his most loyal servant sprayed over his clothes and face while large drops began to drip from the blade of his sword, his face blank and emotionless.

The shock on Voldemort's face turned to anger.

"How DARE you Potter." He shouted outraged.

Potter's head turned to him slowly but the look on his face made Voldemort reassess his adversary, the fury burning in Potter's eyes made him want to eliminate his enemy all the more quickly.

He raised his wand, the killing curse leaving his lips as the jet of green light flew towards his bloodied enemy.

* * *

Harry was running on instinct, all emotion had left him with the exception of anger.

He sidestepped the curse and began firing blasting, bludgeoning and any other form of high damage spell he could think of at the thing he called his enemy.

He watched as Voldemort raised and kept adding more power to his shield as the attacks rained down upon it, threatening to bring it down at any moment.

He forced his anger, his hate into the attacks, spells were erupting from his wand like shells from a canon, each exploding against the shield in dazzling displays of light before the shield finally collapsed, throwing Voldemort back against the wall.

Harry watched as the snake faced Dark Lord pushed himself up onto his elbows, grinning at him evilly.

"Is this it Harry….Are you going to kill me….Are you looking forward to spending the rest of your life in Azkaban prison?"

"Somehow," replied Harry "I don't think Fudge is going to risk loosing his position as Minister by sending me to prison for killing 'The Dark Lord' who has caused him so much grief."

"You can't kill me Harry." Sneered Voldemort.

"Do you want to bet on that?"

Harry raised his wand but before the first syllable past his lips the wall to the left of Voldemort exploded as the limp form of Adam came flying into the room.

Harry tried to jump out of the way but he was too slow as Adam collided with him sending them both tumbling to the floor on the other side of the room unconscious.

* * *

Harry's eyes rolled in his head before managing to focus them again, he came around in time to see Adam's twin throw the limp form of his brother back out the hole in the wall, letting him fall down the side of the Tower.

On the other side of the room he saw Fleur still lying with dried blood matted into her hair.

"It looks like sleeping Beauty is awake," James grinned moving to stand next to Voldemort who was once again on his feet.

Harry raised his wand and fired a blasting hex at them only to have James swat it out of the air like an annoying insect.

Opening his hand towards him James summoned Harry's wand straight to him before handing it to Voldemort who pointed it at Harry.

"Time to die Harry."

Harry sighed, waiting for his inevitable end.

Before the first syllable had left Voldemort's lips there was a bustling of movement as something large and grey crashed into the back of him and Adam's evil twin sending them tumbling to the ground.

Harry didn't have time to react as whatever it was picked him up off the floor and jumped straight out through the hole in the wall, pulling Harry with it.

When Harry managed to regain his composure, fighting the urge to kick wildly as he dangled in mid air, he managed to turn his head enough to be able to see a feathered arm and talon holding him tight.

_Oh thank god, Fleur._

"I'm alright Arry." She returned in her slightly harsher part-bird voice as they glided down into the courtyard.

As they touched the ground next to the Tower they dropped to their knees, breathing heavily.

As Harry panted and thought about his lucky escape he realised that it was not grass but carpet on the ground and instead of hearing the whistling of the wind, all he heard was the sound of other people breathing.

He felt a weight removed from his head and looking up he saw Adam getting to his feet in front of them.

"Good." He said before walking over to where all the others who had portkeyed with them were standing on the other side of (what appeared to be) the training room.

"What the." he gasped looking over to Fleur, seeing that all the blood that had been flowing from wounds on her head and body was no longer there, nor where the injuries that had released the blood, she was also no longer in bird form.

He looked back up at the others.

"What on Earth is going on?" he demanded.

"You past the test." Replied Adam.

Harry said nothing for several seconds before saying very quietly.

"The….what?"

His tone made several of the group wince.

This wasn't going to be pleasant.

"There is only so much you can test in controlled conditions Harry," explained Adam "It was my idea, a live firing simulation allowed us to see how you would use your new skills in a real world situation."

"None of that was real?" asked Fleur.

"Not after the portkey."

"Beauxbatons, the Death Eaters, Madame Maxine, me killing that Death Eater and Bellatrix?" continued Harry almost too calmly.

"All in your mind." replied Adam.

The others watched as Harry very calmly stood, walked towards Adam then in one swift movement brought his arm around and punched Adam hard in the face, before turning and walking rapidly out of the room followed by a concerned Fleur.

The others stood still for several seconds before Viktor let out a sight.

"Well, he could have taken that better."


	47. CH47 ROP Part 4: Blood On My Hands

Chapter 47 – Rites Of Passage (Part 4) – Blood On My Hands

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:25th August 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:Afternoon_

As Harry and Fleur left the room Dimitri turned towards Adam.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes….I knew that was going to happen so I was ready for it." He replied, straightening his coat ignoring his face (now red from the impact).

"How did you know?" asked Viktor "And why did he hit you anyway?"

"I knew because it is what I would have done and he did it because we just tricked him but more importantly he just witnessed his colleagues being killed, Fleur and Madam Maxime being seriously injured, and in addition to that he thought he had killed a Death Eater and he believed that he had got revenge on Bellatrix for killing Sirius and for what she did to the Longbottom's."

"Oh."

* * *

Fleur finally caught up with Harry as he entered their room.

"Arry wait." She called as he finally came to a stop just inside the door, leaning heavily against the frame.

Coming up beside him slowly she looked at his lowered face; it was hard and expressionless, not willing to let any emotion show.

"Arry….are you alright?" she asked quietly, laying her hand on his arm causing him to flinch at her touch.

Fleur tried to feel him down the link but he was completely closed off, shutting everything out, it left an empty space within her.

"I….I need to be alone." He said quietly.

"Please Arry….tell me what's wrong?" she asked again, she felt terrible to be separated from him, there was a part of herself missing "It hurts to be shut off from you….Please Arry….tell me."

They stood there for several seconds before Harry answered even quieter than before.

"I don't feel anything."

"What?"

"I don't feel anything." He repeated.

"I don't understand Arry."

"….I killed Bellatrix….and I felt nothing." He said again, looking slowly up at Fleur, his eyes looked hollow and lifeless; the sight sent a chill down her spine.

"Arry….you didn't really kill her, it was an illusion."

"We didn't know that, so I killed her….I should feel guilty, I should feel ashamed of what I have done….but I feel nothing."

"Arry, she killed your godfather and condemned one of your friends parents to a fate worse than death. You should NOT feel guilty for removing her from the world….even if it was just a simulation."

"You don't understand!" he said loudly, turning on her taking a tight grip of both of her arms, before pushing her backwards against the wall with a hard thud, Fleur whimper in pain.

"I killed her…..I killed her and I felt nothing….NOTHING."

"Arry, you're hurting me." She gasped as Harry's hands tightened around her arms hard enough to leave bruises.

"I KILLED A LIVING, BREATHING HUMAN BEING….AND I FELT….nothing." he finished, tightening his grip so hard that her eyes were filling up with tears.

"Arry, please stop!" she cried.

He released her arms and threw himself away from the wall.

"I'm a monster and a murderer." He finished a look of disgust and horror on his face.

With that he turned and fled the room leaving a crying Fleur slumped against the wall, holding her bruised arms.

* * *

The Delacour's and the others heard Harry run past the training room in the direction of the Entrance Hall.

Viktor and Dimitri both moved to go after him.

"No, leave him." Said Adam "He needs time, he won't leave the grounds, he just doesn't want to be near anyone for a while."

"How do you know?" asked Delphine.

Adam turned towards her, in that second he looked older and wiser than he normally did, he looked like a man who has seen too much.

"I'm fifteen billion years old," he explained "I know what he's feeling; I need to speak to Fleur and explain the situation, then hopefully I can help Harry get through this."

With that he moved out of the door and headed towards Harry and Fleur's room.

* * *

As he approached the door he heard the sounds of crying from the other side.

Entering the room he saw Fleur kneeling against the wall, her hands wrapped around bruises on her arms while she sobbed into her lap.

He gently knelt down beside her.

"Fleur, are you alright?"

Her head rose slowly until she looked at him, her eyes angry and full of tears.

"Why did you put him through that?" she sobbed.

"We needed to test your skill level and to see how you would react in a situation where you were loosing the person you care about the most, which in Harry's case was you. He reacted the way I thought he would."

"What did he do?" asked Fleur, rubbing at the bruises on her arms.

"As soon as you lost consciousness he let his anger out, he decapitated Bellatrix before turning on Tom and pounding him with spells until he was hit by the simulation of my unconscious body, you woke up shortly after."

Fleur nodded slowly, her tears slowly stopping

"I don't understand why he reacted like he just did."

"He believes by not feeling guilty about Bellatrix's death he is likely to kill rather than incapacitate again in the future, he feels he is now dangerous to know," he explained, moving his hand over the bruises on Fleur's arm "He doesn't want to be around anyone encase they say something to make him angry and he kills again."

"Arry wouldn't do that!" shouted Fleur, completely missing that fact that Adam's hand was glowing, healing her bruised skin.

"I know that and you know that but Harry….you know he still believes that he destroys more lives than he saves." He explained removing his hand, revealing perfectly healed skin.

Adam watched as Fleur realised exactly what had taken place.

"You….you did it deliberately. You wanted him to kill Bellatrix and that Death Eater."

Adam nodded slowly, waiting for the impact of Fleur's hand that followed a second later with a resounding crack.

"How can you do that to him!" she demanded standing, her left hand beginning to smoke as her anger rose "You knew how he would react."

Swinging her arm around a ball of fire erupted from her hand and went flying into Adam's chest, throwing him back against the open door, the front of his shirt now containing a large round hole where the fireball had hit, the edges and the exposed skin charred and still smoking.

Adam breathed heavily for a moment, ignoring the pain before turning back to her.

"Yes, I knew how he would react but answer me this, would you rather he feel like this now when he has time to deal with these feelings, when he has friends and family around him, or just after a battle with real Death Eaters where he may have lost people he cares about and there may be no one to help him through this. That would be by far the worst time to be suffering from survivors' guilt, not to mention the though of actually killing another human being."

Adam watched as Fleur reluctantly saw his point, not that she liked or approved of the decision he had made but she could understand why he had done what he had.

"You can't comprehend what he is feeling Fleur as you have never been in that situation….and hopefully you never will be."

"How do you plan to help him through this?" she asked, not overly nicely but then Adam would have been surprised if she had forgiven him that fast.

"By talking to him about death."

She stood silently for several seconds, waiting for him to continue.

"….Is, is that all?"

"I can be very convincing." He replied standing, giving his usual short bow despite the fact that he had been recently scorched.

Without saying another word he turned and left the room, leaving Fleur to ponder over her memories of the day.

As he passed the training room he leaned around the frame.

"Delphine, Fleur is a little bit upset, she could probably use some comforting."

He then turned and headed down to the ground floor, not giving the others the chance to ask about the changes to his attire not that it was not blatantly obvious what had happened.

Walking out through the Main Doors he headed out into the rain, following the trail of magic that Harry was exuding.

He reached the edge of a hill and found the huddled form of Harry sitting on the soaked grass as he approached he waved his hand over his shirt, repairing the hole in the material.

Walking up beside him he slowly sat down about a meter away and waited.

* * *

Harry heard Adam approach and sit.

They both said nothing for several minutes until Harry finally said:

"I'm sorry….for hitting you."

"Do not worry about it; I was almost certain you would so it was not unexpected."

"Why did….why did you make me see and do those things?"

"I made you see those things because we had to see how much you had learnt but I did not make you do anything, I let the simulation run its course, the only times I interfered where when Bellatrix cursed Fleur and when my body came through the wall."

"Why then?" he asked in monotone.

"I interfered with Bellatrix to catch Fleur off her guard and with Tom because although it was not overly nice for you to have believed that you had killed Bellatrix, imagine what you would have thought if you had defeated Voldemort and then discovered it was just a simulation."

Harry didn't reply he knew Adam was right; he would probably have been almost suicidal if that had happened.

"And so you know Harry….I do not know how much power Tom has so I simulated someone with a similar level of power to yourself."

He hadn't wanted to hear that, the thought that it would be that easy to defeat Tom next time was one of the few things he had liked about the simulation.

They sat there for many minutes before Adam asked:

"How do you feel?"

Harry said nothing for several seconds before replying.

"I killed Bellatrix….and I felt nothing."

"I would be surprised if you did." Commented Adam.

"What!" Harry asked shocked.

"Harry, you have every reason to hate her for what she has done to you and those you care about."

"But I killed her, I should be ashamed of myself, I should feel guilty!" argued Harry.

"The fact that you are thinking that way proves that you are not the monster I am guessing you think you now are."

"I am a monster, I killed two people…."

"Harry," he interrupted "If I were to place a Death Eater in front of you now and I gave you a wand would you kill him just for the sake of killing him?"

"Of course not!" Harry shouted back.

"That proves you are not a monster, a monster would not worry about killing a person for no reason what so ever."

"But I…."

"Do you think Remus is a monster?"

"What, no!"

"Do you think Sirius was a monster?"

"NO!"

"They both intended to kill Wormtail, does that make them monsters." He didn't give Harry the chance to answer and kept going "Harry, how do you feel about killing the other Death Eater?"

Adam watched while Harry's face went slightly green.

"I should have just stunned him or cut him as a distraction while I incapacitated him."

"You feel guilty about it." Adam says as a statement rather than a question knowing that Harry would not answer "You did not know who it was and therefore you had no existing feelings against him, you only don't feel guilty about Bellatrix because you know who and what she was….a murderer and a monster."

"But I murdered two people, forgetting what I feel about them; I am guilty of killing them so I'm going to Hell anyway."

"What makes you think that, just because you had intent to kill someone and carried through with the act that you are going to Hell?"

"It's a sin therefore I go to Hell."

"What makes you think that the churches opinion on murder is the right one?"

"Until I met you I thought it was all rubbish, but your powers came from the Gods so tha…."

"You have just disproved your own point, you said Gods, the church believes in only one God, yet there are many from many different religions."

"But murder is still murder." Harry countered.

"Harry, during the time of the Crusades killing a member of another faith was sometimes considered a way into Heaven no matter who he or she was, yet killing a member of the same faith would condemn you to Hell….One life is as good as another, so what opinion is correct?"

"So which view is correct?"

"Neither, both, you are judged on your deeds, opinions, what you have been through, what you were thinking at the time, the way you were raised, what you were taught was right etc. If I had been taking care of you since birth and I had taught you to kill every person you came across that would be taken into account, you had been taught that way so you do not know any other way of thinking."

"So where would I go if the Gods see all?"

"First I want to explain something else to you Harry. If you believed in the Gods of Ancient Egypt your soul would be weighed upon your death, you and I would fail the weighing but Tom would pass and go on to the afterlife, do you know why?"

"No?"

"Because we both feel guilty about the lives we have taken or have tried to take, Tom does not so they do not weigh on him. So you see Harry you can not trust to a faith if you do not believe in it. Neither of us believe in religion, we know of the Gods existence but do not worship them thusly we have to live to be the best people we can."

"How do we do that and how do we know what classifies as good or bad?"

"You have to try to view your life from your own and someone else's perspectives."

Adam turned to Harry and looked him in the eye

"I have killed many times Harry….but I doubt the Gods of Light will let their 'champion' go to Hell, they need me, thusly it does not matter what I do but you and all others have to try to be the best people you can be by doing you think it right."

"But what happens when things go wrong when you try to do the right thing?"

"If it was an accident then it is still good, for example if you accidentally lean on a button that sets of an atomic warhead and kills millions of people, as it was an accident you wont be punished for it."

They both sat there for several minutes before Harry continued.

"Can I kill a Death Eater during a battle?"

"You can, we both know that if we capture them they will be sent to Azkaban and then Voldemort will break them out, also in battle you don't always have time to just incapacitate, stalling to do so could mean your death, under those circumstances killing is allowed, that is the point I am trying to prove to you, you can kill someone and still be a good person, you are fighting for what you know to be right and to win you sometimes have to kill."

Adam leaned forward and took hold of Harry's shoulder.

"You are a good man Harry, and while you continue to worry about whether you are a monster you will continue not to be."

Harry said nothing but he knew that Adam had made his point.

"If you are as powerful as you appear," asked Harry "….why don't you just end this war now?"

"Rules of engagement Harry, I can't just unleash my power and kill Voldemort; I am only allowed to use my heavenly powers to eliminate outside threats?"

"Outside threats?"

"Something that should not be happening, Buffy was attacked in her dimension by a large amount of demons, that shouldn't have happened therefore I can intervene, but when she was temporarily killed I could not, I am allowed to help you fight an army of Death Eaters but I can not wield my full power against them to eliminate them all at once. I am allowed to use as much power against an opponent that is supposed to be there as they could use against me, it can extremely annoying at times."

They sat for several minutes before Adam stood.

"Come back inside Harry, you have a Veela to make up with."

Harry sighed before slowly standing and followed after him.

He idly noticed as they walked back inside that the rain seemed to be avoiding Adam, slanting away from him at the last moment leaving him completely dry.

As they walked back inside Adam pealed off and headed for the training room while Harry moved towards their room.

As he walked uncertainly into the room he saw Delphine holding a sad looking Fleur on the other side of the room.

When Delphine saw him she carefully extracted herself from Fleur and walked towards the door, giving him a kiss on the cheek and a comforting smile as she went.

Turning back towards his mate, he saw Fleur slowly get up before walking towards him.

They stayed standing about a meter apart for several minutes before Harry finally got up the courage to speak.

"Fleur….I…."

She silenced him with a finger to his lips.

"I'm sorry Arry….I'm sorry I couldn't understand how you felt, I'm sorry I got you mad and I'm sorry I made you shout, please forgive me?"

Harry was shocked, he should have been begging for her forgiveness and here she was asking him to forgive her.

"Fleur, I'm sor…."

"Don't apologise Arry, it was my fault, I can't imagine what you were feeling and my failure to understand that made you get mad, I know you didn't mean to hurt me and I know that even after being inside your mind I still can't understand what you have been through….Please….forgive me?"

Her voice was nervous, unsure to what his answer would be, how could he ever refuse her anything.

"Yes." He nodded in defeat, not attempting to apologise again.

No sooner had the syllable left his lips when she lunged at him, hugging him tightly to her and kissing him frantically, as if trying to make up for what she thought she had done wrong, Harry still couldn't understand how she was blaming herself for his behaviour but he would use the intimacy that he was sure would follow to make it up to her as best as he possibly could.

Pulling her tight against him he returned the kiss with a passion, their tongues battling for dominance, both wanting to prove themselves, to make up for what they both believed to be their fault.

They manoeuvred themselves over to the bed, kissing and groping each other as they went, neither willing to release the other for more than a moment.

Hitting the side of the bed they toppled onto the mattress, Fleur getting pinned below Harry, there lips still glued together.

They began pulling at each others clothing, longing for the touch of skin.

They managed to pull each others outer clothes off, leaving Harry in his jeans and Fleur in her lacy underwear. Harry finally managed to wrench his mouth away from Fleur's causing both to moan at the loss of touch, he began to kiss his way down her neck, nipping and teasing the skin as he went, all the while his hands were busy massaging her lace covered breasts, she didn't usually wear a bra, she didn't need to, another advantage of being Veela he supposed.

She moaned as he made his way down her body, enjoying the sensation, Harry had never been the dominant one during their intimate moments, occasionally when they were making love slowly he would draw level with her but he had never been this adventurous, he normally asked permission multiple times before doing anything, it looked like he had finally listened to her telling him that he did not need to.

She gasped as he kissed her through her silk knickers. Her hands went to the back of his head as he continued his assault, teasing her through the material.

When he stopped she groaned in loss and tried to force his head back but he resisted, manoeuvring out to slink his way back up her body.

She squeaked in surprise when he grabbed her by the legs and spun her over onto her front.

Turning to ask him what he was doing she discovered as soon as she felt the catch on her bra being released, allowing the garment to slide its way down her arms.

Moments later she felt his lips descend on the newly uncovered area of her back, repeating the process he had started on her front.

Fleur's hands curled into the sheets and she closed her eyes in pleasure as the sensual contact from her mate continued.

Harry brought his lips up to nipple her neck giving a couple of gentle bites, eliciting gasps of surprise from Fleur before trailing back down her back until he reached the border of her underwear, he kissed along the line where lace met skin before slowly pulling them down her legs kissing the skin as it was exposed.

By this point Fleur was almost melting into the mattress, the mixture of both sensual and sexual tension was just radiating off her, she had never felt so turned on and so relaxed at the same time in her entire life.

As Harry's lips left her legs she eagerly awaited what would come next. She was more than a little surprised when Harry lifted her onto her hands and knees; again she began to turn to ask him what he was doing when she heard the sound of clothes being removed before she felt him push into her centre.

They both moaned as Harry sheaved himself inside of her, setting a steady pace.

Fleur would have to get Harry to be more adventurous more often; she was being touched in places she had never been touched before.

She began to force backwards, matching Harry's pace moaning at each re-entry, enjoying the pleasure they were both receiving.

As Fleur began to tense up she pulled off of Harry and in a rapid movement turned over and flung Harry onto the bad before mounting him.

"My turn….


	48. CH48 Farewell…Hermione Granger

Chapter 48 – Farewell….Hermione Granger

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:26h August 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:Morning_

The next day a very happy Fleur and Harry awoke in each others arms, pleasant memories of the best love making session they had ever had coming back to them.

As Harry came to himself he thought he would try to apologise once more for his actions and for injuring her the previous day, not to mention how forward he had been the previous night, while Fleur wasn't fully awake hopefully she would not be able to object until after he had finished.

"Fleur….I…."

"Arry, if you try to apologies again I wont sleep with you again until Christmas, we both reacted badly…."

"You…"

"Don't interrupt Arry or I will carry out that threat, we both reacted badly, it happened and we made up in truly spectacular style, let's put it behind us and not mention it again."

Harry sighed and nodded his agreement, receiving a thank you kiss from Fleur.

"Oh and Arry," she purred "If you ever want to be that adventurous again...feel free."

* * *

At the Breakfast table they decided as most of their lessons were now concluded that they would spend the day studying, Harry had as good as finished both his and Fleur's seventh year defence books and was a fair way through the charms books as well. It was amazing how much work you could get done when you didn't have Ron to distract you...mind you; the rewards offered by Fleur for doing well were also a fairly good incentive.

During the meal Adam entered for a moment and asked if he could see them both later as he wanted to carry out an experiment.

Shortly after Adam left a new voice interrupted them.

"Hey Feathers, Antlers."

"Hey Beaky." Replied Fleur.

"Morning," greeted Harry before realising what Colette had just said "Antlers?"

"Fleur told me that you were learning to become a stag Animagus and I thought Antlers sounded good."

"Oh." Nodded Harry.

"I was originally going to opt for Horny but I thought you might object to that."

"More accurate thought." Grinned Fleur earning a chuckle from Colette and a choke from Harry.

"I can tell?" added Colette, "The amount of pheromones that Fleur is giving off is blanketing my senses."

"Pheromones?" asked Harry.

"Yes, and from the amount being given off I would guess that something spectacular happened last night."

Both Fleur and Harry blushed at the comment.

"How adventurous were you Harry?"

"I…err….how did….err…." Harry stuttered causing Beaky to grin.

"The pheromones act as an aphrodisiac as well as causing you to loose some of you inhibitions, it's supposed to help the man to keep up with his Veela mate during sex….and by the look on your faces it worked spectacularly."

"Getting back to the point," Harry replied clearing his throat, his voice slightly higher than usual, trying to get off subject as quickly as possible "Did your father get a chance to look at the contracts?"

"Yes, he thinks that they're sound," smiled Beaky, withdrawing the contracts from one of the forbidden areas of her dress "Along with that book you got they cover everything we need; they are safe for us to sign, mine is already on its way."

"Good," nodded Fleur, taking her contract and signing it "We had better get ours sent off then."

"Lets do it now," agreed Harry, while signing his own contract, only stopping himself just in time to prevent him writing 'Harry Potter' before turning to Colette "Then we can focus on our studying, care to join us Beaky?"

"Oh excellent, a threesome." Grinned Colette, earning a cough from Harry and a groan from Fleur.

"Beaky, you're so predictable." Replied Fleur as they headed out into the hall.

They walked up into the south corner tower of the Chateau were the birds lived, the top two floors of the tower had been removed to allow the birds more room to roost on the beams that stretched across the space and in the alcoves set into the walls, there were also several openings in the exterior wall to allow the birds to enter and leave.

Most of the alcoves were full of doves or chicks, their parents flying in and out of the room periodically to bring their young food.

The only place clear of doves was right at the top of the tower where five owls sat on the highest beam including one with white feathers.

"Hedwig." Called Harry, his voice startling several of the doves from their perches.

His owl opened a lazy eye and looked down at her master before closing it and puffing herself up.

"Hedwig, what's wrong?"

"Arry, if you remember you have been here for weeks and you haven't been to see her once." Explained Fleur.

"Oh." Harry replied, suddenly looking ashamed. "Hedwig….I'm sorry, I'm sorry I've ignored you, forgive me?"

The bird opened an eye again and stared at her master for several seconds before opening the other eye and slowly gliding down towards them, doing a low pass over both of the Veela, causing them to duck to avoid getting raked by her talons before coming to rest on Harry's arm.

"What was that for?" Harry asked gesturing in the direction of the Veela.

"She doesn't like us Harry." Explained Colette.

"Why?"

"Veela remember," she explained "Giant predatory bird, she's jealous, she thinks you are leaving her for us."

"What?" He exclaimed in laughter, before turning to the owl. "Hedwig, you don't think that do you?"

Hedwig just hooted once and turned away from them.

"I think that's a yes." Smiled Colette.

"Hedwig, I'm not going to leave you for them, they are my girl and my friend, you are still my only bird."

Hedwig still didn't react.

Harry smiled before moving his other hand around to stroke her back.

Fleur and Colette watched amused as the moody bird subtly tried to lean into his touches, before finally giving up and giving him a friendly nibble on the finger.

"I'm not sure who's got who more whipped." Whispered Colette trying to hold back her laughter.

Fleur smiled back at her before summoning one of the doves down and sending it off with her contract before looking back to her mate and his bird.

"Are we good again Hedwig?"

The owl hooted once before extending her leg for him to attach his contract to.

"Sorry girl, Dumbledore mustn't know this is from me, I have to use one of those others." He said gesturing to one of the other owls.

One of them obviously heard as a large barn owl fluttered down to one of the lower beams.

Hedwig gave a huff and flew back up to the others.

"Well, that didn't last long," sighed Harry going over to the barn owl and attaching the contract "Can you fly faster than that dove?"

The owl hooted.

"Good, then you should easily overtake her, just so long as you don't arrive at the same time."

Harry stood back, allowing the owl to dive out one of the holes in the wall, sending doves flying.

Harry sighed up at Hedwig before leading the way back out of the tower.

No sooner had he reached the Entrance Hall when he collapsed to the floor, his scar erupting in pain.

"Arry!"

"Whats wrong?"

He couldn't answer them as images flashed across his vision.

FLASH

A street.

FLASH

A house.

FLASH

Black cloaked figures appearing.

FLASH

A bedroom.

FLASH

A young woman with bushy brown hair lying on a bed.

FLASH

"Hermione!" he shouted "She's in trouble, Death Eaters."

"At Hogwarts?"

"No, it must be her house, but I don't know where she lives."

"Viktor knows." Replied Fleur.

Harry was on his feet running towards Viktor's room before she even finished the sentence, taking the stairs two at a time, the others following behind him.

It took less than ten seconds for Harry to reach Viktor's room, the pair of swords he had summoned flying into his hands as he burst through the doors so fast he almost tore the door straight of its hinges.

"What the...Merlin Harry, what's going..."

"Do you know where Hermione lives?"

"What, yes, of course." He replied climbing out of the chair he had been dozing in "But wha..."

"She's in trouble, Death Eaters, make a portkey." He gasped as Fleur and Colette caught up, already transfiguring their appearance to that of April and April's almost identical twin sister.

He moved to transfigure himself into Daniel.

"No Arry," said Fleur "Daniel can not be seen there, nor can you."

"Then what would you recommend I do then?" Harry returned hotly, annoyed that his best friend was in trouble and they were not there to help.

"Use this." Answered Adam's voice from the doorway as an object flew though the air towards him.

Catching it Harry turned it over to reveal the mask from the shop in Merlin's Road.

"What the…." He began only for Adam to cut him off.

"Put it over your face."

"I won't be able to see." Harry complained.

"Trust me."

Groaning Harry removed his glasses and raised the mask up to his face, not having the time to argue.

As it neared his face it flew towards it like metal to a magnet and stuck though there were no straps to hold it on. As soon as it made contact with his skin Harry felt his clothes begin to change. After about a second his eyesight returned, completely unobstructed as though he was not wearing the mask as all, his vision was also perfect, not blurred as it usually was without his glasses.

Looking down he saw that his clothes had changed to a set of black robes and he was now wearing strange metal vambraces, greaves and gauntlets on his forearms, ankles and hands, they were made out of the same metal as the mask but seemed to way nothing.

"What the…."

"It's an Illusions Mask." Explained Adam.

"Wow." Exclaimed Colette "Your taller, your skin is darker and your head has changed shape, very super hero like."

"It's the ultimate form of transfiguration, your voice will also be different, in addition if you press your wand against the underside of the armour on your right arm it will stay there and it looks like you are cursing wandlessly, though your wand will react as though it was in your hand." Added Adam "It's also ironic when you think about who we are about to fight."

"A man in a black robe and a mask taking out others in black robes and masks, I like it." Grinned Viktor as he and the others transfigured their clothes so that they were also dressed in black robes, albeit without the armour. "The portkey is ready."

The group of took a hold of the portkey and vanished.

* * *

Hermione Granger was lying on her bed reading a book on duelling, ready for next years DA. After Harry had left Hogwarts Dumbledore had allowed Ron and herself to return to their now warded homes for the last few days of summer, not expecting Harry to come back until September first he had obviously seen no reason to keep them there.

A klaxon going off shocked her out of her reading.

It was the wards, they were under attack.

Jumping out of her bed she grabbed her wand and ran to the window, outside at least a dozen Death Eaters were firing curses at the wards, they would not hold long against the bombardment, they were designed only to hold back the enemy until help could arrive or they could escape.

Running downstairs she found her parents grabbing onto the portkey that the Order had left them.

"Hermione quickly!" shouted her father as she ran towards them.

Taking a hold of the portkey they waited for the tug of the portkey activating….but it never came.

They looked around confused, why weren't they at Headquarters.

"Anti-portkey Wards." explained Hermione "I knew we should have taken out the electric fire and put in a grate. Quickly, grab a weapon; we will have to hold them off until the Order can arrive."

There was a small frenzy as her parents ran to get anything remotely weapon like, eventually ending up with a pair frying pans and a cricket bat before moving out into the front hall.

Hermione moved to the left of the front door while her parents took position on the opposite side, glancing through the glass pane in the door she saw the flash as the wards fell under the bombardment of spells.

"The Wards are down, be ready." She whispered to her parents, both of them tensed, preparing to strike whoever entered their home.

There was an explosion as the front door was blasted off its hinges sending shrapnel down the hallway.

They waited as the footfalls of several people approached the door.

As the first Death Eater crossed the threshold they jumped into action, the poor idiot didn't even see the attack coming as a cast iron frying pan came down on the back of his head, neither did the second who was halfway through the door as a cricket bat collided at full speed with his face sending him back into the two cloaked figures behind him both of whom were rapidly stunned and their wands confiscated.

Hermione shot a look at the front garden while summoning the Death Eaters wands to her hand; there were at least a dozen or more enemies now and they had just lost the element of surprise, she really hoped the Order arrived soon; they could not survive long against those odds.

She ducked back inside just in time to avoid being hit by a nasty set of curses that impact the outside wall of the house and the hall carpet.

"Suggestions?" asked her father as another set of spells flew through the open doorway.

She thought for a second while muttering shielding spells around herself and her parents.

"You know you like darts."

"Yes, but is this really the time for a g…."

"How good are you at throwing knives?"

Her father looked shocked then slowly grinned.

"I guess we will find out." He replied dropping the cricket bat and running in the direction of the kitchen.

"What about me Hermione?" asked her mother.

"Do you think you could play tennis with a frying pan?"

"Why would I…."

"Some spells bounce of reflective surfaces, just dodge anything that's green."

Her mother nodded before following after her husband to get the stainless steel pans leaving Hermione alone to deal with the Death Eaters at the door.

She spent several minutes firing spells out of the doorway anytime a Death Eater tried to approach but she went on the defensive when they started chucking explosive charms at the doorway and the wall, she had to force all her strength through both her own wand and the confiscated wands just to maintain the shield holding the wall in place.

Luckily some of the Death Eaters were distracted when knives started raining down on them from the upper floor, several of them plunging straight into the shoulders and limbs of the attacking force, thought most missed it still provided a fairly effective distraction, it became even more affective when their spells started to fly back at them causing them to start diving out of the way.

Unfortunately that didn't distract them for long as they started firing blasting hexes as the upper floor causing her parents to cease their actions, she hoped because they were merely taking cover as the front wall of the house was being blasted apart.

She didn't get much time to think about this as three blasting hexes hit the wall in front of her at the same time, shattering her shield and sending herself and large chunks of debris flying down the hallway.

Rolling to her feet she got up in time to see three Death Eaters approaching her, wands drawn.

Raising her arm she was shocked when her wand and the others in her hand flew into the waiting palm of another Death Eater standing behind her.

_Shoot, I forgot about the backdoor_

"Say goodnight Mud-Blood." Sneered the one behind her, aiming her own wand at her head.

Hermione stood her ground, proud in defiance, she would die standing.

Closing her eyes she stood waiting for her imminent death.

It wasn't supposed to end like this, but she was proud to die fighting.

Proud to die doing the right thing.

"Avada…."


	49. CH49 The Masked Hero

Chapter 49 – The Masked Hero

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:26h August 2001 AD_

_Country:England - Cotswold Hills_

_Location:Unknown_

_Time:Late Morning_

Hermione waited for her chance.

"Avada Kedav…."

She ducked as the last syllable, praying that Death Eater would end up cursing one of his own.

She missed the sound of an object flying through the air and of spraying liquid as she dropped.

As she hit the floor she kicked out with her legs, praying that the Death Eater was close enough, her legs connected with the Death Eaters knees kicking his legs out from under him.

She spun around and threw herself at the falling Death Eater, tackling him backwards grabbing his wand hand as they landed, desperate to get her only weapon back.

But something was wrong, the Death Eater was silent, un-moving.

Hermione tilted her head up to look into the Death Eaters face.

When she looked past his neck she jumped back in shock, throwing herself off the Death Eater, only just resisting the urge to exclaim.

The Death Eaters body was lying on the floor where they had fallen….and a meter further down the hall was his separated head.

She leaned heavily against the wall, trying to suppress the urge to bring up her breakfast at the sight of the decapitated head and the sprayed blood covering the walls.

Hearing a thumps she spun around aiming her wand, forcing herself to focus on the danger rather than the horror scene behind her.

As she turned she saw not the Death Eaters that had been standing there but a man.

He was wearing a long black cloak and a mask, but unlike the Death Eaters his mask was not white, instead it was a dark grey ranging into black with silver highlights and no holes for the eyes, in addition to the half mask he wore armour on his wrists and arms and she thought she could see similar armour on his shins under his cloak.

Looking at the ground in front of them, all the Death Eaters that had been on that side of her were now lying unconscious on the hall carpet, one of them had a sword imbedded in his side, their blood stained the black robes and also (she noticed) her jeans and top.

"Are you alright?" asked the figure "Do not worry, I will not harm you."

"Who are you?" she asked fearfully, keeping her wand pointed at him.

"I'm….I'm a friend." Replied the figure after a moment's hesitation, before looking down at his hand.

Looking at his armoured hand she saw four wands gripped between his fingers. He held out the wands for her.

"Take these, you may need them."

Hermione slowly took the wands from his outstretched hand.

"Thanks." She replied uncertainly.

It was then that she became aware of the events outside of the hallway as the sounds of battle drifted through the front door.

"Excuse me." He bowed, picking up his sword before turning and running out of the door.

Hermione instantly ran after him, following him through the wreckage of the front wall.

Outside was one of the most extraordinary sights she had ever seen.

There must have been at least twenty black cloaked figures in the street, most were masked and engaged in battle with four cloaked figures and the masked hero who had just saved her, more Death Eaters had obviously arrived during the course of the battle as another five masked figures were lying unconscious or wounded on the ground.

Quickly muttering some binding spells at the fallen enemies she ran towards the Death Eaters the masked figure was fighting.

* * *

Harry and the others had arrived just in time, while the others engaged the twenty or so Death Eaters in the front garden and street he charged straight at the two in the way of the door, with a couple of vicious slicing hexes to their stomachs they doubled over gripping their midsections. 

Ignoring their cries he entered through what remained of the front wall.

As he passed through the hole he was in time to see Hermione standing, eyes closed, proudly awaiting her fate at the hands of four Death Eaters, or so it appeared, she had something up her sleeve.

Rage weld up inside of him, they dared to attack one of his friends; they dared to attack a person he considered a sister.

"Avada Kedav..."

The Death Eater never got the chance to finish the curse as his head flew of his shoulders as Harry's sword sailed through the air, decapitating him before impaling itself in the wall.

The other Death Eaters were stunned by the sudden movement of both the sword and the witch in front of them; they came back to their senses quickly and spun on him but all too slow to save themselves as rage fuelled Harry's movements.

Grabbing the head of the nearest Death Eater he slammed it hard into the wall, knocking him unconscious, blood pouring down his face, at the same time Harry extended his arm, casting a silent summoning charm.

The Death Eaters raised their wands as Harry's sword sailed between them into his waiting hand before being brought around in an arc to slash into the stomachs of the pair, causing them to double over like their friends at the door, not letting them hit the floor Harry grabbed their heads and crashed them together, knocking them both out, dropping one of the men he silently summoning their wands to his hand and froze.

The expression on Hermione's face terrified him, she had just seen what he had done to the Death Eater who was about to kill her, he watched as she covered her mouth with her hand, trying to stop herself being sick.

He had done that…. It pained him that something he had done could cause that reaction from anyone, especially not someone he considered to be a sister. He had to resist the urge to go over and comfort her; he now knew that he could not reveal his identity, even to Hermione, if she reacted that way to the body, how would she react if she knew it was him who had killed them?

Dropping the Death Eater in his left hand the body dropped to the floor with a thud, getting Hermione's attention.

She spun around aiming her wand.

"Are you alright?" he asked, his voice a little deeper than normal and more soothing., doing his best to assure her that everything was alright without actually comforting her "Do not worry, I will not harm you."

"Who are you?" she asked

Harry at to think about this one, what could he tell her.

"I'm….I'm a friend."

Trying to get off the subject as quickly as possible he handed the wands to her, picked up his sword and ran back towards the sounds of battle, knowing she would follow him.

Running into the fight he saw that several other Death Eaters had Apparated in.

They appeared to be outnumbered almost four-to-one.

Colette and Fleur were fighting side by side against seven opponents, one blocking and deflecting while the other threw curses, Viktor was engaged in a running battle with five others using his seeker skills to dodge the curses being thrown at him much to the annoyance of the Death Eaters, especially as he was firing some of the spells they were using back at them (one of the advantages of going to Durmstrang) , that left Adam dealing with the remaining eight who Harry could tell feared their cloaked opponent, while one hand was holding up a shield that was reflecting their curses back at them the other was throwing spells at them, making them dive out of the way.

Drawing both his swords he ran straight towards the group attacking the girls, turning his swords outwards and bringing them against his sides he ran straight through the Death Eater lines, his swords slicing into the sides of the opponents he ran between.

He did not stop to see the result of his attack and instead dodged through the exchanging curses and headed straight for a group of five who had just exited a nearby house and appeared to be trying to come up behind the girls.

* * *

The Death Eaters could never have foreseen what was about to happen to them, this was supposed to be an easy job, one fifteen year old witch and a street full of Muggle's to kill, an excellent mission for the rookie group, they never expected to meet much opposition especially not a masked figure wielding swords.

* * *

Harry's swords came around in an ark, cutting straight through the arm of one Death Eater and into the shoulder of another. 

Replacing one of his swords he then started aiming is wand arm at his opponents, aiming weak blasting curses at them, hitting with just enough power to blast them unconscious.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Hermione running up beside him to take on the remaining two enemies.

He watched as Hermione cast a complicate arrangement of summoning and banishing spells to propel the knifes that littered her lawn at the enemy.

Taking advantage of the distraction he turned the ground below the Death Eaters feet into mud making them sink up to their waists.

Stunning them Harry then froze the mud to stop them sinking any further, he then moved towards the next six who were just emerging from houses further down the street, Hermione in hot pursuit.

Unfortunately this set saw them coming and fired long range curses at them.

Harry idly recalled something Moody had said about rudimentary wand safety before his fifth year.

Carefully aiming a cutting curse he fired, praying that it would hit its target.

A fraction of a second later it did as the spell sliced through the Death Eaters wand causing the magical core to explode, taking the Death Eaters hand with it.

It may not have been his buttocks but it still must have bloody hurt.

* * *

Bill Weasley relaxed as the last Death Eater at the Burrow dropped to the ground. 

Looking around he saw the twins and Ron busy binding the others and removing their wands.

Turning back to the house he could see Tonks and the rest of the family checking each other for injuries, some had cuts and the odd gash, the most serious being his father who had had the bones in his right arm shattered during the battle.

Reaching the door to the kitchen he headed for the sitting room to Floo Dumbledore about the attack, he only got as far as the kitchen table when he heard the sound of the klaxon alarms going off, running into the sitting room he saw several of the warning alarms attached to the wall blaring away, flashing red to indicate that other locations were under attack, he had helped Dumbledore install them at Hogwarts, Order Headquarters and the residences of several of the Order members to monitor several locations around Wizarding Britain, the sounds of battle must have been blanketing out the alarms.

Turning back to the kitchen he shouted "Get in here quick!"

There was the sound of pounding feet before most of the family members ran in.

"Hermione's!" cried Ron.

"Not just the Granger's," continued Charlie "The Lovegood's and Longbottom's as well."

"Quickly," shouted Molly resuming her role as Matriarch "Bill and Tonks head for the Grangers, Fred and George the Longbottom's, Ginny and Ron get to Order Headquarters and rally all the help you can get and contact Dumbledore, Arthur get to the Ministry and contact the Auror's if they are not already on their way while I and Charlie go to the Lovegood's"

There were nods of confirmation from the group.

"And remember that our fight started at least fifteen minutes ago so move as fast as you can, especially you two." She said pointing to Tonks and Bill "Hermione may be clever but she is still only one witch."

They jumped into action, most running out into the back garden to get beyond the Anti-Apparation wards, Bill briefly heard Ginny and Ron complaining that they weren't going to help Hermione before he went beyond hearing range.

"Ready Bill." Asked Tonks, drawing her wand.

"Whenever you are ready." He replied.

Giving her a short nod they both Disapparated.

* * *

When the pair appeared the sight that greeted them couldn't have been further from what they expected. 

The Dark Mark hung over the street, half the houses along the road had had their doors blasted in, on the pavement and front gardens of the houses were over a dozen unconscious Death Eaters in various states of health and lastly but certainly not least were the two groups of cloaked figures and Hermione duelling away at the centre of all the devastation.

"What in Merlin's name!" exclaimed Tonks.

"I haven't a clue." He replied, examining the scene, for a brief moment he thought he saw something familiar from the hand of one of the thinner cloaked figures but dismissed it just as quickly "But whoever they are they are doing better than we were, nine of us against fifteen DE's took us this long, but these five and Hermione against over twenty five DE's, and they appear to be winning, especially as all the people on the ground have Death Eater masks."

"Shall we help out or just watch the entertainment?" asked Tonks.

"Might as well assist, they probably don't need it but…."

"As much as I am sure you are enjoying the show," hollered Hermione angrily "Would it be too much trouble to ask you to assist?"

The pair exchanged a look.

"I think you have your answer." Said Bill before running straight into the fight.

Coming up on either side of Hermione the pair started reigning curses down on the group of Death Eaters in front of them.

"Wotcher Hermione, what's going on?" greeted Tonks.

"I thought that was blatantly obvious." She replied hotly "What took you so long; my parents and I had to hold them off on our own until this lot arrived."

Bill spared a glance at the cloaked figures; one was different as he was wearing a strange half mask, he also wielding a sword.

"And who are this lot?" he asked.

"I haven't a clue but they saved my life so I was saving questions until after the battle."

"Fair enough." Nodded Tonks.

"What took you so long?" demanded Hermione again hitting a Death Eater square in the face with a rather nasty hex while a knife impaled his left leg "You took ages to get here and I was expecting a bit more help."

"Sorry about that, the Burrow was attacked, everyone's alright, dad got hit in the arm but nothing more serious than that. It was only after we had defeated them that we heard the alarms going off, the homes of all the students who were at the DOM minus Harry are under attack, we split up and came to assist."

"You seem to have a lot more Death Eaters than we did and so far you are doing better than us too." Grinned Tonks.

"If you three would be so kind as to stop gossiping like a load of old women," Said the masked figure coming up beside them, throwing a blasting hex at the feet of the Death Eaters in front of them "We have a battle to win."

"Who are you anyway?" Demanded Tonks, not liking the figure for interrupting the conversation.

"That is for me to know," He replied drawing a second sword and diving between the Death Eaters, aiming low he again turned his blades outwards and extended his arms just enough to cut into one ankle of each Death Eater as he passed between them, causing them to buckle as their tendons were cut, spinning around he brought his swords up cutting neatly through the wands of each, causing them to explode taking the users fingers with them.

Quickly stunning the two Death Eaters he turned back to the three, the blood running down the now red and slightly burnt swords.

* * *

"And for you not to." Replied Harry, watching amused as Bill, Tonks and Hermione stood their in shock at his speed and manoeuvrability. 

Looking around he examined the area, there were no more Death Eaters, the others were busy binding the unconscious ones, casting minor healing charms on them to prevent them bleeding to death in the time it took the Aurors to arrive.

"That's the lot." called Fleur, her voice changed so it had a different sound to April's.

"Is everyone alright?"

"Nothing a quick healing spell wont heal." Replied Viktor, his voice also different.

"Good." Nodded Harry walking along beside Hermione's garden wall, examining the scene.

He watched as Hermione was checked over by Bill, breathing a sigh of relief that the battle was over she looked back towards the remains of her home, presumably worried about her parents and eager to go and see how they were. Her face rapidly changed from concern to worry.

"Look out!" she cried aiming her wand.

Turning around Harry raised his swords high, preparing to strike down whoever was left.

As he turned, time seemed to slow as he caught a glimpse of a Death Eaters with his wand raised before the air between them was filled with fire.

"No!" he heard Fleur cry.

Turning his face to the left he brought his arms across and down to protect his face, his swords crossed just as the flame hit him.

Harry never remembered quite what happened next but all he knew was a brief feeling of warmth then gasps of surprise. Opening his eyes he realised that he was still in one piece and not in fact a charred lump of roast homo-sapien.

Everyone stood still for several seconds, shocked by what they had just seen, not believing the evidence of their eyes, he should have been a smoking corpse.

The Death Eater who had been hiding behind the garden wall came back to himself first, re-aiming his wand he shouted.

"Accio Mud-Blood."

No one reacted fast enough as Hermione sailed through the air towards him, grabbing her wand he brought both to her throat.

"Let her go." Demanded Bill, aiming his wand, his movements mirrored by the others.

"I don't think so, lower your wands or she dies."

The threat hung for several seconds no one moving before Tonks slowly lowered her wand, followed equally slowly by everyone else.

Harry looked into Hermione's eyes, asking him for help, he was aware that she still had the other Death Eaters wands in her other hand, something her captor was not aware off, she needed a distraction.

The Death Eater laughed before turning to him.

"Any last words before I kill this piece of filth?"

Harry sent a glance over the Death Eaters shoulder.

"Yes, just one….Fore."

The Death Eater looked at him confused.

"Fo…." Was all he managed to say before a golf club collided hard with the back of his head.

Hermione took advantage of the distraction and jumped out of the Death Eaters grasp, before spinning around and blasting him to the other side of the garden.

"Hole-in-one." announced Mr Granger with a satisfied smile, examining the dent in his makeshift weapon "Dam that was a good club."

"Head-in-one's probably more accurate." Grinned Tonks.

"Dad." Sighed Hermione in relief, running to embrace her father.

"I'm fine Hermione, I was knocked unconscious and your mother seems to have been hit with what fits your description of a Leg-locker curse." Looking around he saw all the unconscious and deceased bodies "It seems to have got a bit livelier since we were incapacitated."

"Just a bit." grinned Bill.

They were interrupted by the sounds of many people Apparating in.

"Out!" Cried Harry.

"No wait!" cried Bill but all too late as the cloaked strangers Disapparated before the Auror's had the chance to react.

No one noticed an injured Death Eater behind a garden wall reach into his robes and activate a portkey.

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:26h August 2001 AD_

_Country:England_

_Location:Unknown_

_Time:Early Afternoon_

Somewhere in England a manlike creature sat in a large chair of a cold stone room as one of his servants moved before him; kissing both his feet he rose and awaited his master's command.

"Report." Hissed the figure.

"My Lord….all the attacks….they all…."

"Crucio." Cried the Lord pointing his wand at the man for being slow to respond.

The man was held under the curse for many minutes, lying on the ground he cried out in pain.

Finally the spell was released.

"Now report." Repeated the cloaked figure "Did Potter appear?"

"No My Lord, all the attacks failed." Reported the man, not making the same mistake twice.

"All?" hissed the Lord.

"Yes My Lord, the blood traitors were all at the house as well as the Auror Tonks they were able to capturing all your Death Eaters, the Lovegood's escaped before we could catch them, the Longbottom's were not at the house and the Mud-Blood was rescued by five cloaked figures, one wearing some strange sort of mask, only five of the Muggles on the street were killed."

The Lord sat still in his chair for over a minute saying nothing before letting some of the anger he was feeling dissipate by torturing the Death Eater in front of him.

Finally the Lord was bored with torturing the pathetic man and allowed him to stand again.

"Tell me of this masked figure."

"Yes My Lord, he wore a black cloak as well as dark metal armour on his arms and a strange half mask with no eyes holes. He was wielding a pair of swords and was casting wandless magic, he was very fast and wasn't hit by a single curse during the course of the battle, he was even able to survive being hit at point blank range by an Incendio, he had no problem when it came killing as he eliminated many of your followers with his swords without pause."

The lord thought for a moment before giving his servant his orders.

"You have done well Nott; continue to gather support for our cause."

The Death Eater bowed low before backing out of the room, relieved that his torture was over.

As soon as the door was closed a darkly dressed figure walked out of the shadows.

"Looks like we have a new player." Smiled James "And an interesting one at that."

"Indeed," hissed Voldemort "As expected all the attacks against wizards failed and while it is a shame that the Mudblood and most of the Muggles survived it has definitely been enlightening, it was worth loosing that many Death Eaters to make my point, I believe that Potter and the rest of the Wizarding population will have got the message, you do not oppose me without risk of retaliation."

"If I were you I would not be so confident that that is the message you just made, but time will tell"

"What do you make of this masked figure?"

"He is no one that I know of, but with only five of them they can hardly cause us much trouble, it will definitely be interesting to see how this plays out...This war is turning out to be most interesting...yes."


	50. CH50 Allegiance

Chapter 50 – Allegiance

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:26h August 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:Early Afternoon_

With a series of pops the five Apparated into the training room of the Chateau where the elder Delacour's were worriedly waiting.

"Oh thank Merlin!" exclaimed Delphine ending her pacing "You could have told us you were going before you left, we had to ask one of the House Elves what happened to you."

"What happened?" asked Dimitri as he started casting healing charms on the small injuries most were sporting.

"We arrived just in time to stop Death Eaters killing Hermione," explained Harry "We managed to defeat most of them and when Bill and Tonks arrived we took care off the rest. We left when the Aurors FINALLY started arriving."

"How did you know about the attack?"

"My scar exploded, I saw a house with Death Eaters around it, then Hermione in her room, well I'm guessing it was her room, I've never actually been to her house before today."

"Did you say that William and Miss Tonks arrived?"

"Yes, they must have spent a couple of minutes just standing staring at the fight, I'm pretty sure they were not expecting what they saw."

"I wonder why only a couple of them came;" asked Fleur "I was expecting at least five."

"I think I heard something about an attack somewhere else." Added Harry.

"That would explain it, I suggest we go and get cleaned up," said Fleur "Some of us are looking a little worse for wear."

"Good idea." Agreed Harry, looking down at the blood stained robes "Red's not really my colour."

The group split up and headed to their respective rooms.

"Are you alright Arry?" asked Fleur as they walked towards their room, dropping her hood and removing her cloak, a few drops of blood clinging to her still disguised red hair.

"I'm ok," he replied "After that talk about death with Adam, I….I think I understand it better than I did before, sometimes killing is necessary."

Fleur was shocked by what she heard; she never thought to hear Harry accepting the responsibility for someone's death so lightly.

"You're shocked;" he added not looking at her, he was still wearing the illusions mask so she could not see his face "I'm sorry if you are ashamed of me."

"What. Oh no no, I'm not ashamed of you." She answered quickly "I agree, sometimes killing is necessary, it's just….I never though to hear you say so."

"While we were at the Grangers I decapitated a Death Eater to stop him killing Hermione...I was right to do it...and I would do it again...She is like a sister to me and I will not let anyone hurt her."

"I would do the same for any of my family." Agreed Fleur as they opened the door to their room "Are you as surprised as I am that Bill or Tonks didn't recognise us."

"Who says they didn't."

* * *

Turning to the source of the voice they saw lying on their bed, a tall man with a fang earring and red hair in a ponytail. 

"Bill!"

"Bugger."

The Weasley chuckled, rolling off the bed and moving to lean against the end.

"How did…." Tried Fleur "How did…."

"If you remember correctly you keyed me into the wards when we were a couple and apparently you never had me removed."

"How did you know?" asked Harry, still masked.

"I saw two of your groups hands smoking….Fleur" he explained turning to the disguised Veela "And as I do not know many other people who can control fire and that can be linked, however remotely to Hermione it led me to believe that either you and Delphine, but as I covertly saw her on my way up, you and Colette were two of the five cloaked figures."

"What about the rest?" asked Fleur, still not confirming that it was her.

"Well I think I can take a guess at two of you but not at the third."

"Who do you think we are then?" asked Harry.

"Until a minute ago I would have said that you were The Guardian that Dumbledore told the Order about, but after hearing the tail end of that conversation I would guess that you are Harry."

"Why is that?" Harry asked.

"Well, I thought you were The Guardian because of your manoeuvrability during the battle but if Nymph or myself could recognise you that means you have to be Harry….Though if you are I will be very surprised at your skill."

Harry chuckled before reaching up to remove his mask.

As it came away the cloak, vambraces and the rest of the armour disappeared, the blood on them vanishing into thin air.

"Blimey, that's some clever enchanting." Exclaimed Bill looking at the mask before looking up at Harry "That was really you with the swords?"

"Yes."

"Holy Merlin, where on Earth did you learn that?"

"Here of course," explained Fleur "We hired some trainers to teach him how to fight and Adam is a very good swordsman and helped him to become as good as he is now."

"Yes but, you can't get that good in only a few weeks."

"We've been using a Time Turner." Added Harry

"They're illegal, how on Earth did you get...Never mind, I can guess...Dimitri?"

"Dimitri." They replied.

Bill nodded before looking to Fleur.

"I thought you looked familiar at the party."

"Well now you know why," She grinned removing the charms on herself and moving to give him a peck on the cheek "I am."

"I thought you would be someone Harry knew but I would never have guessed it was you, until I they arrived at the party I thought you were one of the former Gryffindor Chasers."

"I believe that was the idea." smiled Harry as Fleur moved back to him and looped her arm around his waist "Aren't two of them going out with the twins?"

"Yes," replied Bill slowly "But let's just say that the twins don't normally enter into exclusive relationships, as I understand it they like to swap and mismatch with whoever either are going out with."

"You mean that they...they…." tried Harry "With just one?"

"And the other way round I believe," replied Bill "They have never actually told anyone if that's what they do, but I would say that it's a fair guess. They have a saying: 'double your pleasure, double you fun' and from the looks on the faces of girls that they have been with it appears to be true, it wouldn't surprise me if the girls also were not in exclusive relationships."

"Oh." nodded Harry trying to keep images of Katie and Angelina out of his head.

"Oh, and by the way, congratulations Harry." Bill smiled, looking over to Fleur before moving to one of the chairs. "Now, tell me what's going on."

Settling into the other chairs the pair started to bring Bill up to date on the month's proceedings.

After enlightening him to all the information regarding the rescue, the Dursley's, the training, Beauxbatons, the Goblins, the Veela and Dumbledore's job offers they sat back and waited for Bill's response.

"So….what are you going to do now?" they asked, waiting to find out whether he was going to reveal everything they has said to Dumbledore.

"I have just one question." He announced.

"Yes?" Harry asked slowly, gently shaking his wrist so that his wand dropped into his hand.

"How can I help?"

The pair sat in silence for a moment before Fleur spoke.

"Pardon?"

Bill chuckled and repeated himself.

"How can I help?"

"You...you're not going to tell Dumbledore?" asked Harry.

"Of course not?"

"Why?" asked Fleur.

"You may not know this Harry but you already have an army."

"Well, the DA…" started Harry.

"I'm not talking about the DA Harry." Interrupted Bill "I mean all of us who have grown up around you."

"What do you mean?" asked Harry.

"Those of us of the younger generation, we have seen you grow up and have watched you battle and face every obstacle you have come across, we don't automatically follow Dumbledore like our parents do, we make up our own minds."

"Who are we talking about exactly?" asked Fleur.

"Myself, Charlie, the twins, the members and former members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, the DA of course and probably a lot of the old members of Gryffindor and the other houses, I can't speak for the younger ones, maybe Tonks though I have never actually asked."

"What about Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Neville?" asked Harry, slightly shocked by what he was hearing.

"Well they would follow you anyway, I'm talking about those of us who are not quite THAT close to you, those of us who have been around you but are not constantly at your sides."

"What about Mr. Lupin?" questioned Fleur, smiling at what she was hearing.

"I can't speak for Remus; he's one of the older generation and Dumbledore has done a lot for him over the years, but he's not blind, he will not follow someone if he does not agree with them, yes he could probably be swayed to our cause."

"Our cause?" asked Harry.

"Well as you are assembling an army I'm assuming that you are actually going to be going out and fighting rather than just espionage like Dumbledore. I will follow you Harry."

Neither of the pair moved for several seconds until Fleur got up, went over to Bill and gave him a short but firm kiss.

Harry flinched as the link flared, but not in the normal pleasant way, Harry understood that she was just saying 'thank you' but the bonding obviously didn't appreciate the sentiment.

Pulling back Fleur hugged her ex-boyfriend before moving back.

"Thank you Bill."

"No problem Fleur, but I wouldn't recommend doing that again, your mate didn't like that very much, even if he did hid it well."

Her eyes widening in realisation as she turned back to Harry, giving him an apologetic kiss on the lips.

"Oh, sorry Arry, I wasn't trying to…."

"I know," he explained "Just, the link didn't like it very much."

"I'm still sorry; I didn't mean to make you feel like…."

Harry silenced her with a kiss to the lips.

Pulling away he watched as Fleur wore the same glazed expression he usually wore when she kissed him.

"Hey, I can do it to." He grinned.

"Well done Harry," laughed Bill "Even I never got skilled enough to stop her speechless."

Coming back to herself Fleur blushed and looked at the floor.

Harry gave her a one armed hug before pulling her down into his lap.

"Does Tonks know you're here?" he asked turning back to Bill.

"She knows I have gone to follow up a lead as to who the cloaked saviours of the Granger's were, but she does not know where I have gone, why?"

"Because I want to add an Auror to the team."

* * *

Tonks had been pacing around her department for over an hour, after reporting to the Aurors then to Dumbledore and THEN to the rest of the Order about the events at the Grangers house she had finally had the chance to make her exit. 

After reporting to the Aurors about the events of the night Bill had left to pursue what ever lead he though he had regarding the strangers identity, she wished he had waited until after the Order debriefing to leave though, she didn't like being on the spot in front of that lot, she may be an Auror but when being faced with Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, Molly AND Moody it becomes more like an interrogation.

She finally came to a stop in front of the fireplace as Bill stepped through.

"You couldn't have waited could you?" She glared, putting her hands on her hips "You just couldn't wait until after we had told the Order. I have just been interrogated for hours and hours and HOURS!"

Her annoyance was evident to Bill as her hair was rotating rapidly between red and its natural dark brown/black, a testament to her Ancestry, the image was slightly less effective as Bill always thought she looked cute when angry, and the snug jeans and tight low-cut shirt didn't really help the annoyed look either, especially as it was evident she was not wearing anything under her top.

"Good to see you to Nymph." He grinned.

"Don't you Nymph me." She returned "I haven't forgiven you yet."

"What about if I told you what I found."

"I don't care what you found…" she ranted.

"Harry Potter." He said quietly, waiting for his words to sink in.

"I don't care if you have found Merlin himself, again?" she stuttered, her hair stopping fluctuating before turning back to its usual pink.

"Harry." He repeated, trying his hardest not to laugh at her predictable response.

"Where?" she demanded.

"I will show you." He grinned, holding out his hand for her to take.

"We need to tell the Order immediately."

"Not yet, afterwards."

"What?"

"After you have seen him." He repeated moving his hand out again "Trust me."

"But..."

"Trust me."

Tonks thought for a second, they really ought to tell Dumbledore, but she trusted Bill to know what he was doing.

Cautiously extending her hand she placed it is his.

Turning back towards the fireplace Bill picked up some powder and threw it into the fire.

"Chateau Delacour." He called as he stepped in, giving Tonks just enough time to respond before she got pulled in too.

"Where!"

* * *

As the pair exited the fire place Tonks (as usual) tripped on the grate. 

Squeezing her eyes shut as she fell she slammed into something during the fall.

The person gave off a grunt as they hit the floor, making her landing considerably more comfortable than it would have been.

"As much as I am enjoying this Tonks." Said a muffled voice "I regret to inform you that I am already taken."

Looking down she could see a mop of black hair on the head of someone whose face was pushed into her well developed chest.

Realising who it was she grinned.

"Are you sure Harry, I could make it worth your while." She whispered seductively, pushing her breasts further onto Harry's face, while grinding her hips against his.

Surprisingly he did not develop a physical reaction.

_Blimey, there's a first time for everything, not so much as a twitch._

No one had ever failed to react to her before...and she didn't mean just the men, she had seen women and even a Goblin react once when she had managed to trip over in Gringotts giving him a clear view of her delectable behind.

"Quite sure, sorry Tonks."

"E's already ad to let down six ladiez this zummer," said a heavily accented French voice.

Looking up she saw the lithe form of Fleur Delacour smiling down at them with some amusement.

"And az two of them were Half-Veela, I don't vink you have much of a chance."

"Oooo, a challenge." She grinned, satisfied when Harry groaned after one final grind of her hips before climbing to her feet.

As Harry also got up she got her first good look at him, she hadn't really got the chance during their other meetings.

"Wow Harry, what have you been up to?"

"What do you mean?" he asked looking down at himself and trying to avoid looking down her revealing top at the same time.

"Well for a start you seem to have developed muscles," she replied, poking his arms and chest "You've also got a bit of a six pack," her hands trailed down his chest to his stomach where he had to resist the urge to squirm "And you must have shot up at least an inch, which is why you are now able to stare down my...very...tight...top." she purred, pushing her chest into his.

Harry stuttered for a bit before returning "Tonks, if you don't stop that I will be sleeping on the sofa for a month."

Fleur chuckled "I vink I vill let you off Arry."

Tonks's eyes widened and spun to Fleur. "You're….you're April!" she exclaimed.

"Yez."

"Morgana...I never saw that coming; I thought it must have been one of the girls from Hogwarts."

"That's what I said." Agreed Bill.

"Nope." Replied Harry moving back to Fleur, sliding her arm through his in order to give himself a shield from more of Tonks teasing.

"No chance I could get you to leave her?" purred Tonks again.

"Sorry."

"You sure about that, there are advantages to having a metamorphmagus as a girlfriend." She grinned, putting her hands over her breasts and giving them a squeeze while using her metamorphmagus abilities to make them expand to several times their original size until they were barely being contained by the fabric of her top.

Harry almost choked on the air he was breathing.

"Tonks, can I azk you not do vat," Fleur grinned "I don't vink Harry will zurvive you doing it again."

"I don't think Bill will survive it either," grinned Tonks returning her breasts to their normal size while glancing at her boyfriend "Though I think he will die from lack of blood to the brain."

Both the men blushed in embarrassment.

"Anyway," replied Harry clearing his throat "Shall we get back to the point?"

"Yes, yes...What was the point?" asked Bill "It's slipped my mind."

"Vanting Tonks to join uz." Smiled Fleur.

"Oooh, an orgy." Tonks grinned "I get first go at Fleur."

Both the men froze again, their eyes glazing over as they got some very nice visual images.

"Vell done Tonks, they von't be able to concentrate on anything for hourz now."

"Well, I think they're enjoying the imagery."

"Pozzibly but that doesn't help us much, you get the attention of yours and I'll get the attention of mine."

Fleur leaned up and gave Harry a powerful kiss while Tonks acted less subtly and pinched Bill's behind.

"Right, now we ave you two back," chuckled Fleur at the embarrassed looks on the boys faces "Shall we get back to the point and no more teasing." She said to Tonks who saluted in return, she must have been spending too much time around the twins.

"Right, everyvone take a zeat." Instructed Fleur "Ve have things to discuzz."

After the ladies had settled into their partners laps Fleur and Harry began to talk.

They spent the better part of the next hour explain the situation, it took longer as Tonks kept stopping them with questions, by the time that they finished she was staring at them agape.

"That was you with the mask and swords."

"Yep."

"Morgana."

Harry grinned as Tonks hair flared bright blue as she exclaimed before returning to its usual pink.

"And what are you going to do?" he asked.

"Well obviously we've got to let Dumbledore know you are safe."

"No."

"No? What do you mean no?" she asked.

"I mean no." replied Harry "I don't trust the old fool and he is going to be left in suspense until September first, if you want to you can think of it as revenge for barely saying two words to me last year until after Sirius died."

"But the Order."

"Stuff the Order." Replied Harry making everyone look at him in surprise "They weren't able to protect Hermione, they weren't able to stop wizards entering Pivet Drive and they weren't even aware that I had left Pivet Drive, so tell me why I should trust myself to their protection."

Tonks went so say something but his last statement had obviously stopped her dead in her tracks.

"So what are you going to do?" she asked.

"Nothing before September but once school starts I am going to shake the Headmasters carefully sculpted world, I will then do the same to the Ministry and build up an army to fight Voldemort, and STOP jumping whenever that name is mentioned. If even Aurors can't bare to here the word Voldemort then there is not much hope for the Wizarding World."

"I've been taught since I was born to fear the name Harry; it's not easy to overcome that and what do you mean your going to do the same to the Ministry?"

"I'm going to keep my cards close to my chest for the moment but let's just say I want as many allies inside the Ministry as possible which is why we want you to join us."

"Me!" she exclaimed, her hair flaring again.

"Yez you," replied Fleur "You are an Auror, you can handle yourzelf in a fight, you have had experience fighting Death Eaters, you're a metamorphmaguz, your inzide the Miniztry, your inzide the Order and we all truzt you."

"Yes but what about the Order, I can't just turn my back on them?"

"We don't want you to," replied Harry, his expression turning into an evil grin "We want you and Bill to spy on the Order when Fleur isn't their."

Tonks chin hit the floor.

"You...you...you want me to spy on Dumbledore meetings...Are you serious...Did you hit your head when we fell, I'd never get away with it, you can't keep anything secret from Dumbledore."

"Then explain to me how I was able to stand right in front of him disguised with only a few simple glamour charms and not only did he not recognise me but he offered me a job teaching myself duelling?"

Tonks stuttered several times, trying to form an audible sentence.

"And aren't Aurors taught Occlumency?"

"Well yes but..."

"Viktor can elp you improve your skillz beyond the bazics that you already know." Explained Fleur.

"Viktor!...Viktor Krum!" gasped Tonks.

Harry and Fleur nodded.

"How...how d...You're really serious about this aren't you?"

They nodded.

"Morganna." Tonks sighed slumping into her chair.

"Is that a yes?" asked Harry.

"Well I...I...yes." sighed Tonks, not sure what else she could say.

"Excellent, in that case there is something I want you to do for me."

* * *

**AUTHORS NOTE** **1**: The reader called **'Readerz Lover'** left me a review a while ago asking me to look at a fic he/she had written but there was no URL to follow, please send me the URL in a review or by email and I will certainly do my best to read it if I like the sound of it. 

**AUTHORS NOTE 2**: To those of you who want Hermione dead tough and to every single one of you reviewers thank you and keep reading.

**LATE AUTHOR NOTE 3**: **'Readerz Lover' **the url was edited out of the email, please send it to and assuming that this site will edit out emails as well: adamjamestait (at) hot mail (dot) co (dot) uk**  
**


	51. CH51 The Peoples Champion

Chapter 51 – The Peoples Champion

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:27h August 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:Morning_

The next day when Harry and Fleur came down to breakfast they were greeted by a grinning Dimitri.

"What?" Harry asked worriedly.

The elder man just smiled and handed them a French paper.

The front cover was dominate by a picture of the Granger's street, the Dark Mark hung in the air above it, the cloaked figures of the Death Eaters and their group fighting in the background and the masked form of Harry in the foreground, sword in one hand while casting a wandless (or so it appeared) spell with the other, the pair looked down at the article.

_MASKED HERO DEFEATS DEATH EATERS_

_Yesterday disaster almost struck Wizarding Britain as the home of Muggle-Born Hermione Granger, one of the brightest students at Hogwarts, one of those from the British Ministry when You-Know-Who tried to break into the Department of Mysteries and close friend of the famous Harry Potter was attacked by Death Eaters along with the homes of all the other students at the Ministry that day, save Harry Potter himself whose whereabouts are still unknown._

_While the mass attack itself is worthy of the front page, the events at the Grangers House were even more extraordinary, the following extract is Miss Granger's description of the battle given to a fellow reporter:_

"_It started off as a perfectly ordinary day when all of a sudden the alarm signal from the wards sounded (Miss Granger informed me that Albus Dumbledore himself had erected wards around their house to protect them from such an attack), taking my wand I ran to the window and saw over a dozen Death Eaters attacking the wards. Running downstairs my parents (Muggle's) and I prepared to defend ourselves when the wards fell (they were only designed to hold until help could arrive), due to their numbers the wards went down very rapidly and we were forced to fight."_

_Miss Granger and her parents managed to take down most of the dozen using her wand and various Muggle household devices until the Death Eaters gained entrance to the house by blasting the front wall apart._

"_I got thrown back down the hall by the force of the explosion (my parents by this point had moved to the upstairs windows to give them more than one target to worry about and had been throwing knifes at them), when I got to my feet I was surrounded by four Death Eaters (others had arrived during the battle), one disarmed me before I got the chance to fire. I though that was it, my parents were probably dead and I was about to die at the end of my own wand. I closed my eyes waiting for the end when a strange thing happened. I heard the Death Eater begin to cast the killing curse, I moved to attack him but when I knocked him to the ground I was shocked to see that he had been decapitated, turning around I saw that the other Death Eaters were also dead, their blood was sprayed all over myself, the hall and the robes of my saviour."_

"_Standing in their place was a masked stranger with a sword, he asked if I was alright, told me he was a friend and handed me the wands of the dead Death Eaters before running out of the house towards the sounds of battle, I followed him an came face to face with an extraordinary sight, the Death Eaters were engaged in battle with the masked figure and four others wearing cloaks."_

"_I had no idea who my saviours were but I was not about to start asking questions, they were badly out numbered but despite this they were easily the more skilled fighters, one was deflecting spells with a strong shield with one hand while he used the other to fire back at a large group of Death Eaters, he was doing both wandlessly, the others cloaked figures were all using wands but were still very skilled, but most terrifying was the masked figure himself, he was casting spells wandlessly and was wielding a deadly pair of swords without mercy and with an incredible speed and manoeuvrability."_

_According to the eyewitness reports from Mr Bill Weasley of Gringotts and Auror Nymphadora Tonks (who arrived shortly after in response to the ward alarms) Miss Granger, her parents and the five strangers had managed to take down almost twenty five Death Eaters by themselves, only leaving a couple for the pair to deal with, but what happened next was the most surprising event of the day._

"_When we believed we had defeated them all, a single Death Eater jumped out from cover and tried to attack the masked figure, firing a blast of fire at him. The figure brought his swords up to block the flame but far from being burnt the fire separated over his swords and just wafted over him as if it were no more than smoke, he was completely unharmed and to my knowledge he did not use any magic to protect himself from the attack."_

"_Before anyone could react the Death Eater summoned me to him and used me as a human shield, but my father hit him over the back of the head with a golf club (a long thin metal Muggle club that is used to hit a ball over a distance) and I was able to incapacitate him. Just after that the Aurors started to appear and our five saviours Apparated out."_

_It had taken the Aurors (with the exception of Auror Tonks who had been of duty) almost twenty five minutes to arrive; this reporter wonders if the British Aurors are always this incompetent or whether they would have responded quicker if Miss Granger were not a Muggle-Born._

_At the same time as the Grangers were attacked, so were the homes of all the other students present at the Ministry:_

_Ronald Weasley_

_Ginevra Weasley_

_Neville Longbottom_

_Luna Lovegood_

_Harry Potter is not among this number as he is still missing and who the British Ministry have still proven unable to locate._

_Luckily none of these attacks were successful either due to the skill of the defenders or the incompetence of the Death Eaters for attacking homes where the residence were not even home. This reporter wonders how desperate He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named must be if he considers five children to be a threat worthy of being attacked by over seventy Death Eaters, over half of whom are now deceased or in British Ministry custody but after this debacle how long do we think it will be before they escape. The British Minister of Magic has failed to comment on the slackness of the British Aurors. Amelia Bones, the Head of Magical Law Enforcement in Wizarding Britain is reported to be furious at the incompetence of her Aurors and has ordered a full enquiry._

_Luckily for us it seems that we have a Hero to protect us, to whoever the masked stranger was who saved the Granger's, you have this supporters thanks._

"That's even better than I hoped." Grinned Harry.

"It gets better Arry." Smiled Fleur as she flipped through the paper "There are three pages on the incompetence of the British Ministry, one on your friend's background, another on the attack at the Ministry and another on the details of the attack at The Burrow and the other homes."

"That's just the French papers;" added Dimitri "The British ones are slaughtering Voldemort and Fudge. That was an excellent idea Harry, to ask Miss Tonks to get Miss Granger to talk to the press about what happened."

"We had a message from Miss Tonks earlier," explained Delphine as she entered "Apparently the Quibbler's yearly profits more than doubled overnight with all the British and international papers buying pensive recordings of the interview from them. Miss Tonks will be coming around in a few minutes to tell us what the Order and The Ministry have done."

"No she wont, she will be coming over now." Grinned the Auror as she walked into the room, her hair now a vivid blue "Wotcher Harry."

"Hey Nymph." He grinned back happily, waiting for her inevitable reaction.

She stopped and scowled at him "Watch it mister, Bill barely gets away with calling me that, I don't recommend you do it again...or you will be on the receiving end of an Aurors wand."

"Only if you can catch me." He grinned back "How hard was it to convince Hermione?"

"Very easy actually, she already thought of the idea and was going to visit the Lovegood's when I arrived; she liked the idea of the Ministry actually doing something about V...Vold...Voldemort...as well, not to mention the fact that she wanted to show the world that Muggle-Born's are more than a match for Pure-Bloods."

"I should have guessed," smiled Harry "What's the news from the Ministry?"

"Fudge is flailing around like one of Hagrid's Blast-Ended Skrewt's on its back, yesterday he charged into the D.M.L.E..."

"Pardon?" asked Fleur.

"The Department of Magical Law Enforcement," she explained "Where was I?...Oh yes, he barged in and tried to fire anyone that couldn't explain yesterday's embarrassment, he only stopped when Madam Bones stormed out of her office and informed him very loudly and firmly that he could not fire Aurors without her permission and if he didn't leave immediately she would have him charged with harassment and attempted wrongful dismissal, she then added that if he tried to have her fired for contradicting him she would also sue for wrongful dismissal and she would ask for a complete investigation into the Ministers Office by the Wizengamot." Tonks paused for a moment as she resisted the urge to laugh "You should have seen his face, bright puce, I don't think I have ever seen him more scared in my entire life."

"Blimey, I wish I had seen it, why was he so scared of an enquiry?" Harry asked.

"There have been many rumours surrounding Fudge, especially his association with people like Lucius Malfoy, but unfortunately the Director does not have enough evidence to conduct such an enquiry without risking her position and reputation if he turns out to be clean, which I doubt, at the moment it is more of a standing threat."

"Do we know why the Aurors took so long to respond?"

"Well, when a large concentration of spells is used the Ministry has detectors that pick them up but either they didn't go off, they were sabotaged or the Auror watching them was a Death Eater sympathisers or just didn't care because she was a Muggle-Born."

"If itz not caring or the alarmz not going off then vhy didn't they react to the attacks on the otherz?" asked Fleur

"Well the Lovegood's and Longbottom's only had a couple of spells cast at each location as there were no fights and The Burrow is under heavy wards so they would not be able to detect the attack as we tricked the Death Eaters by letting them through the wards then closing them behind them leaving them trapped, if it was sympathisers or not caring then they wont be Aurors very long, Madam Bones is probably the most respected member of the Ministry."

"And for good reason," contributed Dimitri "She's a very good Department Head, very honest, reliable and firm, not to mention intelligent, its impossible to pull the wool over her eyes, that's why she was appointed as Acting Head of the British Wizengamot when Dumbledore was removed from the position."

"Do you think she would join us?" asked Harry.

"No," replied Dimitri and Tonks simultaneously.

"Definitely not, she does things officially," explained Tonks "She would probably agree with our cause but would not openly support us, but if you want an ally in the Ministry and the Wizengamot she's the one to have."

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:27h August 2001 AD_

_Country:England – London_

_Location:Ministry Of Magic – Head Of Magical Law Enforcement's Office_

_Time:Afternoon_

Madam Bones was fuming; Fudge had been stalking around her department since the Granger incident and he was getting right up her nose, if he tried to fire one more of her Aurors or one of her normal Magical Law Enforcement Officer's (L.E.O's)she would use her wand to expel him.

The only good thing about the last twenty four hours was that now ever single member of the Ministry knew NEVER to get on her bad side, not many people had ever stood up to the Minister and even fewer had done so and kept their jobs. Now they all knew that she was a definite force to be reckoned with, or rather even more so than ever before.

She had just interrogated the L.E.O. who had been watching the Mass Magic Detectors (MMD's), he had been stunned and the alarms disabled; he had taken no part in the sabotage, after over forty years as an Auror and five as the Head of the Magical Law Enforcement she could tell when someone was lying and when they were not, also the fact that he was very new and terrified that he was about to lose his job was a fairly good indicator. There was also no evidence of memory charms so they were completely lost as to whom had sabotaged the detection systems, but rest assured there would be hell to pay when she found out.

The papers were investigating every aspect of the Granger Attack and luckily she wasn't in the firing line yet, her reputation for discipline and efficiency were protecting her but she knew it would not be long before a squirming Fudge pointed the finger at her and she would need a very good answer as to what happened.

It would be even better if she could discover the identity of the hero of the hour but she had even less idea as to his or her identity than she did to the MMD problem.

There was a knock at her door.

"Enter."

"Professor Dumbledore's here to see you." Explained her secretary.

Amelia inwardly groaned.

Brilliant, just brilliant, as if she did not have enough problems. The old man mighty be a very powerful ally but she always got worried when he came to visit in person, it never meant anything good.

"Show him in." she sighed.

"Good afternoon Amelia." Greeted the aging Headmaster as he entered, his usual charming smile on his face as he took the seat opposite her "How has your day been?"

"Albus, I am really not in the mood for the usual games and banter, please get to the reason for your visit so I can get back to work."

Dumbledore looked momentarily stunned before continuing

"Very well,"

Not many people were ever able to take control of a situation away from Dumbledore, one day she would find a way to properly wipe that smile of his face for longer than a second...one day "I am here about the Granger incident."

She was right, this couldn't be good.

"What about it?"

"How long do you think it will be before Cornelius tries to make you responsible?"

"Less than twenty four hours at my guess, why?"

"How do you plan to counter his attack?"

"The only way I can," she replied "By discovering the source of the MMD sabotage, you know I don't play politics." This was not true, there were other things she could do and was indeed doing but she was not about to tell the old man more than he needed to know.

"It would be my recommendation that you try to find out where Voldemort got the addresses of the Granger's and the other students homes."

Oh yes, this was definitely not good, there were very few places that information could have come from:

Hogwarts,

Her department,

Or the Minister's Office.

She had already though of this problem but as Dumbledore was here it could not be Hogwarts, the Headmaster always knew whenever someone came onto the grounds, which meant it had to be the Ministry.

To enter her department was suicide as you had to walk through a room full of over thirty Aurors to get the Security Records Office, even an invisibility cloak wouldn't work. Breaking into The Minister's Office was no walk in the park either, which meant only one thing...

The saboteur had to be an employee of the Ministry.

"Albus, it is at times like this that I am sure you are more trouble than you are worth."

"Possibly so Amelia." Smiled Dumbledore standing "Good day."

Twenty seconds after Dumbledore left she calmly drew her wand, aimed and then threw the most powerful blasting hex she knew at the nearest wall.

The bricks cracked, the magic holding them in place barely managing to hold up against the assault.

Breathing slowly she calmed herself back down before pointing her wand at the door and firing off red sparks which rattled the door against its frame.

A few moments later her secretary knocked and entered.

"You called Director Bones."

"Get Shacklebolt in here."

"Immediately Director." Replied the young woman nodding and exiting the room.

It took less than thirty seconds for her to re-enter. That was one of the very few things that she found annoying about her secretary, she was far too good at her job, more often than not she would ask for a file and her secretary will already have it in her hands before she even finished asking, and when in a bad mood such efficiency could be extremely annoying.

"Auror Shacklebolt Director." She introduced letting the Auror in before backing out of the room and closing the door.

"You wanted to see me Director?" Asked Kingsley standing to attention.

"At ease...Dumbledore has just been to see me." She announced "He told me in his customary manner that the locations of the student's homes involved in the recent Death Eater attack were not discovered from Hogwarts."

"So they have to have been got from the Ministry." Concluded Kingsley.

"And considering the security precautions regarding confidential information,"

"The saboteur must be an Auror, an ordinary L.E.O or a Ministry official."

"Exactly." She nodded "Find out which Shacklebolt."

"Yes Director." He nodded and exited the room.

Amelia respected Kingsley; he was a very capable senior Auror who had been in many dangerous situation and showed wisdom and skill beyond his years of service, despite the fact that he was barely out of his thirties. If anyone could discover who was responsible it would be him.

She was also aware that he was a member of Dumbledore's 'Order', an organisation that she didn't officially know about and was therefore willing to ignore for the present as it could do the things that she as a Ministry Director could not officially do to fight Voldemort.

Appointing Kingsley meant that not only was the job in question in safe hands but Dumbledore would also know that she was looking into the matter and thusly keep his interfering hands out of her department; hopefully Kingsley could do that same to the Minister and allow her to actually do her job without interference_  
_

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:27h August 2001 AD_

_Country:England - London_

_Location: 12 Grimmauld Place _

_Time:Evening_

As Dumbledore entered the kitchen at Order Headquarters the members present fell silent.

"Please be seated." He said moving to the end of the table.

"What's the latest Albus?" asked McGonagall.

"I went to see Amelia today, she is spending most her time trying to discover the identity of whoever sabotaged the detection equipment rather than how the addresses were discovered as that almost certainly has to be someone in her department, whereas the addresses could be got to by almost any Ministry Official and I agree with her."

"But Albus, the students..."

"I know Minerva, but a Death Eater Auror is far more dangerous than a Death Eater official."

"The Madam Bones gave me the task of following up on the address mystery." Explained Kingsley "I have ordered an investigation of the Records Section of the Ministers Office...Hopefully that will keep Fudge out of the department for a while."

"What do you know so far?" asked Bill

"Well if the insider got his information from the Aurors Record Office then he is very clever. There are charms on the door that record the true identity of anyone entering the room whether disguised or concealed. Every person on the record for the last two weeks has been an Auror or a normal L.E.O and each has had a valid reason to enter the room, we're looking further back and interviewing everyone who has entered the room but so far we have drawn a blank."

"What is Amelia doing about our cloaked hero?" asked Tonks.

"She's heading up that investigation herself but quite honestly we have no idea who he was."

"How is Amelia reacting to Miss Granger's interview?" asked McGonagall.

"It's hard to say how she is actually feeling about it," replied Kingsley "Madam Bones is very good at concealing her feelings though if I had to guess I would say that she privately and unofficially approves of the story as it means that Voldemort is loosing credit, but officially and professionally she disapproves as it means that this small group of vigilantes are embarrassing her Aurors and are technically breaking the law not to mention the amount of trouble Fudge is causing her because of the story."

"Agreed." Growled Moody "She contacted me earlier about coming back as an instructor to get the Aurors into shape, they are a complete disgrace."

"Thank you Mad Eye." Tonks replied slowly, glaring at the ex-Auror.

"What's being done to increase the protections around the Granger's and the other houses?" asked Remus.

"I have personally erecting stronger wards around the Grangers house on the off chance that Voldemort attacks again."

"Why didn't we see this coming?" asked Molly "Surely we could have foreseen the possibility."

"Unlikely," replied Snape "This is a new tactic for the Dark Lord, from what I have heard from the other Death Eaters, only those that took part in the attacks, mostly new followers, were aware of the attack, even Lucius did not know about it."

"But even if you weren't told surely we could have anticipated this."

"Not necessarily Molly," replied Dumbledore "Like Severus said, before now Voldemort and his Death Eaters have been so convinced of their own superiority that they never really bothered with tactics, they only ever attacked single targets with just as many Death Eaters as they thought they would need, now with James joining them is obvious that Voldemort is learning how to better plan his attacks using proper strategies rather than just throwing Death Eaters into the fray, rest assured we will not make that mistake again."

"I will be staying with the Grangers until September first," explained Remus "Just encase it happens again and they're fireplace has been made into a flu connection so they have a second escape route."

"In addition I will offer all the other families attacked my assistance in strengthening their wards," contributed Dumbledore "Hopefully that way we can prevent this from happening again."

"Would it not be better to bring Hermione and her parents here?" asked Arthur.

"Possibly but the Grangers have to work and they seem to share Hermione's stubbornness," grinned Remus "They want to show people that they are not afraid."

"What ever possessed Hermione to talk to the press?" asked Molly.

"Perhaps she is seeing how few people pay attention to her now that she does not have Potter near her all the time," sneered Snape "So desperate for the fame that she would talk to a paper with a reputation like the Quibblers."

"Severus, really," chastised McGonagall "We both know Miss Granger is hardly the sort to want fame just because she is friends with Harry Potter."

"Did she hint of her intentions to you when you where there Tonks?" asked Remus.

"Not really, when I went back to check the new wards she told me she was going to visit the Lovegood's to see if her friend was ok, she never mentioned anything about doing an interview, though from what I understand I don't think Miss Lovegood's father is complaining about the massive influx of wealth that the company has just received."

"Is it really a bad thing that she talked to the press?" asked Fred before his brother took over.

"I mean it was entirely positive, it showed Fudge to be an idiot,"

"It made V...Voldemort look desperate, and his Death Eaters to be incompetent."

"His side has just suffered a major loss in moral,"

"How can that be a bad thing?"

"Will you two stop that!" shouted Molly, most of the others trying to hide either their smiles.

"I agree," replied Dumbledore "This is a blow against him and accordingly as I have said the wards have been strengthened around the Granger's house, I am more worried about how Voldemort will react to this blow."

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:27h August 2001 AD_

_Country:England_

_Location:Unknown_

_Time:Evening_

Voldemort roared as the charred remains of the Daily Prophet went hurtling across the room.

"I told you this could happen." Sighed James from his position leaning calmly against one of the stone walls, his arms crossed casually in front of him.

"You said nothing of this." Hissed Voldemort.

"Oh yes I did, I told you how committing such a large inexperienced force to such a mission would be perceived. Now far from the public being afraid of speak out against you for fear the consequences, they now think that you are desperate and that your Death Eaters are incompetent."

"Silence."

"I told you to accept my help, though the attack did yield quiet a few entertaining articles."

"SILENCE!" he roared.

"Though slightly inaccurate I think the one entitled 'Dark Lord's Finest Defeated By 15 Year Old Girl And A Pair Of Saucepans' was the best read."

Voldemort aimed his wand, firing a sickly purple curse at his ally.

James idly unfolded an arm and swatted the spell out of the air, making it crackle against the wall like electricity.

"Surely you can do better than that, what was that supposed to do tickle me? Your problem Tom is that you are too easy to aggravate."

"Do not call me Tom!" shouted Voldemort.

"See what I mean." Smiled James standing up "Now, will you accept assistance?"

"And prey tell me what help you can be, you don't even have an army of followers."

"I don't have an army of followers in this dimension yet." Corrected James "They will take time to arrive but in the mean time I can offer you this."

Turning to the shadows he gestured something forward.

Heavy breathings and heavy the footfalls echoed through the chamber as the creature approached.

As the creature crept out of the darkness the expression on Voldemort's face turned from fury into an evil smile.

"Perhaps you are more useful than you appear."

* * *

AUTHORS NOTE: If you have not visited my homepage please do so as I have uploaded pictures of celebrities that I believe best represent my characters, I would appreciate feeback. 


	52. CH52 Elementary

Chapter 52 – Elementary

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:30h August 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:Morning_

Several days later in the training room.

"So what is this experiment you want to try out?" asked Harry as he Fleur and Adam waited for the elder Delacour's to arrive "And can we do it quickly, I have a little surprise to prepare for the Beauxbatons students."

"It relates to something I saw shortly after the Beauxbatons simulation and again at the Granger's."

"What?" asked Dimitri as he and his wife entered.

Adam smiled his response before conjuring up a candle with a wave of his hand.

It floated in the air between them and was lit by a click of Adam's fingers.

"Blow out the candle."

Harry screwed up his face in confusion "Why?"

"Please." Asked Adam.

Harry sighed and began to move towards the candle.

"Blow it out from where you were." Adam specified.

Moving back to his starting position he began to draw his wand.

"Without using you wand."

"Any more conditions?" Harry huffed, his annoyance evident.

"No, just those." Replied Adam calmly.

Sighing Harry took a deep breath and blew as hard as he could.

As his breath crossed the two meter distance the flame wobbled before returning to normal.

"Now I know you're doing this just to make me look silly."

"Why not let Delphine try." Suggested Adam.

"Oooooh," said Fleur slowly, a smile spreading across her face as she caught on "Know I understand what you're getting at."

Delphine wore the same smile as she walked up parallel to Harry.

Closing her eyes she took a deep breath before extending her hand forward so it was directed towards the candle.

Taking another breath she quickly turned her hand to the vertical and brought her fingers into a fist, at the same time the candle wobbled and snuffed out.

"How did…." Began Harry before pausing "Why am I asking, I've seen Dumbledore do wandless magic before."

"That was not wandless magic Arry." Explained Fleur "That was Elemental Magic."

"It was what?"

"Elementary my dear Harry." Smiled Adam.

"Oh very funny," replied Harry "Now what is Elemental Magic?"

"It's a natural ability to control an element without any form of magical focus," explained Dimitri.

"Veela have a natural ability to control fire," contributed Adam "As do phoenixes and dragons, just like Merpeople have the ability to control water."

Fleur and Delphine both hissed at the mention of their foes.

"What about air and earth?" asked Harry.

"Wood Nymphs have a variation on earth control that allows then to control trees and plants, Valkyrie's can control air and Snidget's have a partial control of air but that is about it as far as Magical Creatures are concerned with a few minor exceptions, all others having long ago gone extinct."

"What does this have to do with me?" asked Harry "I'm one hundred percent human."

"True, but humans can also be elementals though it is very rare in the Wizarding World."

"What makes you think I can do it?"

"The fire!" exclaimed Fleur, realising what Adam had "It passed right over you without so much as singing your clothes."

"Yes, and not just that, when we were out in the rain I saw you unconsciously bending the rain away from you, not enough to keep you dry but enough to stop you getting soaked."

"As much as I like the sound of more power over Tom how can putting out candles and not getting rained on help me?" asked Harry.

"Elementals can do much more than that Harry," explained Adam "All things considered Veela are very weak Elementals, they have lost much of the skill and ability they once had through lack of practise and interbreeding with humans and other species, no offence intended." He said turning to the Veela present "Thusly as soon as fire leaves a Veela's hand it becomes very difficult for them to control it, which is why Delphine struggled to put out the candle, highly trained elementals can do almost anything you can imagine with their element or elements if they can control more than one."

"Maybe so, but we only have a couple of days until we go back to Hogwarts, I can't learn to control two elements that fast."

"I have a suggestion regarding that," replied Adam "There is a very difficult spell which I can cast to allow you more time in which to learn to control your elemental powers, but I only have the ability to cast it once."

"When do we do it?" asked Fleur.

"We don't," replied Adam "I can't take more than one person, you will have to stay here and experience real time."

"What does that mean?" she asked.

"It means for you barely a day will have passed but for Harry and myself it will be a great deal longer."

"How much longer?" asked Harry, not liking the idea of being away from Fleur for too long."

"However long it takes you to become all it is within you to become."

Harry and Fleur looked at each other worriedly; neither liked the idea of being apart for any length of time.

"Are you sure about this?" asked Harry "Are you sure I can control fire?"

"And water," added Adam "But I will prove it if you want me to."

At Harry's uncertain nod Adam turned to Harry's mate "Fleur, please close your eyes."

Looking confused for a moment Fleur complied.

Harry watched confused as Adam waved his hand in Fleur's direction before bringing his hands together and then separated them, a pointed piece of ice in the gap.

Harry realised what he was about to do just as Adam's hand came back and launched the spear of ice straight at Fleur.

"NO!"

* * *

Fleur's eyelids flew open as she heard Harry's words.

She looked up just in time to see a sharp object flying towards her before shattering off to her left as if someone had just slammed a hammer into its side, sending shards of what she thought was ice or glass tumbling to the ground beside her.

* * *

Harry watched astonished as the ice shattered and fell to the ground.

"Are you clinically insane!" he shouted "You could have killed her."

"Could I." he replied before firing a blast of magic at Fleur.

It moved too fast for anyone to react but they needn't have worried as it hit a barrier in front of Fleur, crackling over it before dissipating into the air.

"I raised a shield over her before I attacked...just encase. I trust I have proved my point?"

Moving over to Fleur he took her hand in his, needing reassurance after what had just happened, from the look on the faces of Dimitri and Delphine they were also not overly pleased by what they had just witnessed.

"I will also be able to teach you other skills that may help you in the coming war but for now I believe you had a surprise to prepare."

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:30h August 2001 AD_

_Country:France – Pic Du Thaume_

_Location:Beauxbatons Academy Of Magic – Great Hall._

_Time:Lunchtime_

In the Great Hall of the Beauxbatons Tower the students were sitting down to lunch when Professor Radcliffe walked into the room.

"Attention please." he called, waiting for the students to quieten down "Thank you. As you know tomorrow will be my last day at Beauxbatons."

A roomful of students made various noises of disapproval about the idea.

"Thank you, but I intend to make my last day memorable; as it will also be the last day for the seventh years I though why not go out with a bang...literally."

There were excited whispers around the hall.

"We are going to have a Duelling Competition."

The whispers got louder and more excited.

"All students may participate, the winner of each year will face the winners of the other years and then the champion will have two battles with myself and Beauxbatons former Under Eighteens Champion Fleur Delacour, I will then face Miss Delacour and the person to have beaten both opponents will then face the other two at the same time in an all out duel, see the notice board for details. Oh, I almost forgot, I will be giving everyone a little surprise at the end of the competition but I want it to be kept secret from the outside world for twenty four hours after you discover what it is, thusly as you enter the hall for the duelling you will each sign a contract stating that you can not reveal said information for said period of time, after that feel free to tell the world."

Having finished he walked back out of the hall and back in to the corridor, ignoring the excited gossiping of the students.

Waiting just outside the hall he awaited Olympe's arrival thirty seconds later before the pair began walking up the staircase.

"I was beginning to wonder if you were coming, I almost made the announcement myself."

"Sorry about that, I got held up."

"How do you think the competition will turn out?"

"I can almost guarantee that the winner among the students is either going to be Monique or Colleen, followed closely by the 'Nets' but out of the final battles I haven't got a clue. Have you any idea who will teach my subjects when I go?"

"That was something I was going to ask you, who would you recommend out of the seventh years?"

Harry thought for a second before replying "I would say one or more of the 'Nets' for flying and for DAA I would definitely recommend Monique."

"Why not Colleen?" she asked as they rounded the corner towards her office.

"She is a good dueller but she is too easily aggravated and being a Veela that can be very dangerous. Monique is probably the better dueller if you ignore Colleen's Veela abilities and she is a lot more controlled, she would be a very good Professor."

"Very well." Smiled Olympe "I will ask them this evening, they may even want to consider doing EAGLES."

"EAGLES!" shouted Harry, jumping to his feet as he realised "Oh god, I haven't done a thing about my EAGLES, how could I forget."

"Oh yes, that reminds me," smiled Olympe, far too happily "These are for you."

She withdrew a large brown envelope from within her robes and handed it to him; his name was on the front. Looking up at her cautiously he opened it and withdrew the first sheet of parchment from within, the main text of which read:

_This certificate verifies that:_

_Daniel Radcliffe_

_AKA _

_Harry Potter_

_Has completed a Double E.A.G.L.E in Defence Against Assault _

_at Beauxbatons Academy Of Magic_

_during the summer of 2001._

"What...I don't..." began Harry as be pulled out the second one which was the same thing for Flying Instruction.

"You don't do anything for an EAGLE Arry, you are observed teaching and your student's grades and attitudes judged. Several times during the summer members of your class have had their memories examined and have actually been replaced temporarily in your classes so that the examiners could judge how you behave when not knowingly being observed...and they decided that you passed."

"But I..."

"Don't complain Arry, you did it, the examination board also wanted me to give you this." She said handing him another piece of parchment "It should help with any problems you may face regarding those qualifications as well as with Dumbledore."

Unrolling the sheet Harry looked down at the sheet, a smile grew on his face as it realised what it could mean.

* * *

AUTHORS NOTE: Happy Easter 


	53. CH53 Thank You And Good Night

Chapter 53 – Thank You Beauxbatons And Good Night

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:31__st__August 2001 AD_

_Country:France – Pic Du Thaume_

_Location:__Beauxbatons Academy Of Magic – Great Hall._

_Time:Morning_

The next day at Beauxbatons Academy Of Magic all the students and teachers were assembled in the Great Hall; seven large duelling rings had been raised out of the floor, the Professors currently occupied the centre ring.

Professor Radcliffe stood by the door, waiting for their guest of honour as Olympe began to speak.

"Welcome everyone to the Duelling Competition," she greeted "As you know the annual competition that was due to be held earlier this year had to be cancelled, know we have the chance to hold the competition and to say a proper goodbye to our DAA Professor. Now allow me to introduce the Triwizard Champion of Beauxbatons and former Under Eighteens Duelling Champion, Fleur Delacour."

The students gave a huge cheer as the main doors swung open and Fleur walked in dressed in elegant female duelling robes.

Harry walked up beside her and offered her his arm which she took, much to the surprise of the students who didn't know they were together and much to the annoyance of the rest.

They walked through the rows of students and up the steps to the central platform.

"Thank you Madam Maxime." Smiled Fleur, putting on her best nobility voice "Hello Beauxbatons, it is wonderful to be back."

There was a short round of applause before she stepped back.

"We will be starting off with duels within your own year groups," Daniel explained "As you can see the room has been divided up into seven duelling circles, in each a year group will duel until we are down to fourteen people in the entire school when the duelling will move to this central ring which will allow everyone to be able to watch as the competition gets serious. You are allowed to move around in between duels as long as you are at your ring for your duels. Each duel will be refereed by the Professors and our guest of honour, two per duel, can each year now assemble at the ring where their head of year is now heading, they will be announcing the combatants for the first duels, begin when ready."

There was a hubbub as the students all shuffled towards their rings.

Fleur turned to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"See you later." She whispered before heading off to judge the fifth years, taking a breath he jumped off the side of the platform and moved in the direction of the forth years.

For the next three hours the teachers watched duel after duel as the numbers were slowly whittled down, at one point a forth year asked why he was not watching the older students as they were better duellists, to which he replied:

"I could be accused of cheating, of making weaker duellists go through to the finals so I could defeat them more easily. As it's probable that it will be sixth and seventh years going through to the finals so I can avoid any chances of being accused of cheating by judging the lower years, the same applied to Miss Delacour."

The numbers eventually made their way down to just fourteen and in Harry's opinion not a moment too soon as shortly after the previous question the students started asking him about his relationship with Fleur.

Moving to the central platform Harry was handed the list of students left, he was pleasantly surprised to see that the results were pretty much as he would have expected, Colleen and Monique were the two seventh years as expected, the sixth year was also as expected, the fifth year had proven his predictions incorrect, he had expected the twin Veela's in that year to have gone through but evidently some of the students had been doing research into their species and had discovered their dislike for water.

Delphine had explained that this was because of their bird nature and the fact that they were Fire Elementals, water being the opposite of fire made them dislike it in large quantities.

The students who had defeated them had turned the floor of the platform around the Veela into choppy water, distracting them long enough to stun them or (in the second fight) summon them into the water with no small amount of pleasure.

The forth, third and second years were also pretty much as expected, but the surprise was the joint first years and intro-years which was won by Gabrielle and another, this impressed Harry greatly as her Veela abilities were not fully developed so she could not use her fire as easily as some of the others did.

"Well done everyone," called Olympe as the students gathered around the central platform "We are down to fourteen, firstly lets have the two first and intro-year students."

Gabrielle and a redhead stepped up onto the stage, both looking rather nervous at the though of being in front of the entire school.

Harry saw Fleur go over to Gabrielle and whisper something motivational in her ear which obviously worked as Gabrielle's eyes flew wide with excitement and she took a confident duelling stance.

Thinking it only fair, Harry walked over to her opponent, kneeling down beside her he whispered.

"She may be a Veela, but she's still human, don't let her force you onto the defensive."

He then walked down next off of the platform and moved next to Fleur.

"What did you tell Gabby?" he asked.

"I told her my mate would sign her Limited Edition Harry Potter Chocolate Frog Card if she won."

Harry chuckled "Did you now, what makes you think he will sign it?"

She leaned in close to his ear and quietly whispered "I can be very...persuasive."

Harry had to blink away the erotic image that Fleur sent him as the combatants prepared to duel.

"Begin." Called Olympe, starting the match.

Gabrielle moved very quickly and launched a pair of stunners at her opponent, one of which grazed the redhead's wand arm making her cry out in pain, she never even got the chance to retaliate as a third stunner sent her to the ground.

"That was predictable." Smiled Fleur.

"Gabrielle Delacour wins." Announced Madam Maxime "Second years onto the platform please."

* * *

The next few battles were fairly interesting to watch but got more serious when the fifth years started, Gabrielle was knocked out by a third year, though this did not seem to console the two second years she had defeated in her previous matches. 

Some people wandered around during these early battles, the younger students not being as skilled were not as entertaining to watch but by the time that Monique and Colleen walked onto the platform everyone was watching intently, some were even placing bets.

It was well known that Colleen had always wanted to be Head Girl and that they had been fierce competitors ever since the two first arrived, they were the best students at the school and especially the best student at duellists, when they duelled in class it was anyone's guess who would win.

The two bowed to each other before assuming duelling stances, their eyes were locked on each other.

"Whose your bet on?" he asked.

"Hard to tell," replied Fleur "Their rivalry is legendary, Monique is only just better at academic subjects, but Colleen is Half-Veela, that could make the difference, especially as she is allowed to use her powers during this competition."

"True." He nodded.

"What are you going to do against her if she wins and uses her Veela powers against you?" she asked.

"Let's just say," he grinned evilly "I have an ace up my sleeve."

She creased up her eyebrows, trying to figure out what he was planning but was distracted as the battle began.

* * *

Monique fired a cutting hex at Colleen, before spinning to the side as it bounced off of her opponents shield. 

The next pair of curses passed each in mid air as both students spinning sideways to avoid them and entering a period of cursing and dodging.

* * *

"Care to take a guess at who is going to reveal their plan first?" asked Fleur. 

"I have no idea, but I am certain Colleen's ancestry will give her greater endurance, Monique will have to move first."

"I think you're right, look."

* * *

After five minutes of curse exchanges Monique made her move. 

Firing a flame extinguishing charm at Colleen she drenched the Veela in water, soaking her to the skin.

The crowd howled out their laughter at the sight of the drenched competitor.

Colleen's saw red as the crowd laughed at her predicament, growling she turned back to her opponent.

"You will pay for that."

Her skin rapidly became feathers as Colleen began to change, fury evident on her face.

Monique resumed her attack; drenching Colleen's newly revealed feathers in water, making her look like a drowned rat and inhibiting her ability to fly, eliciting more laughter from the crowd.

The Veela screeched her annoyance as steam began to rise from her talons.

"Prepare to die."

Gripping her wand in one talon she threw an incendio and a fireball at Monique, the flames blasting against the Head Girls rapidly raised shield.

Monique was forced back by the impact of the flames; her shield would not last long against more assaults like that, Colleen knew this and thusly did not stop.

* * *

"She can't survive that," Fleur said worriedly "Colleen is really angry, she wants revenge for all there years of academic humiliation, as soon as her shield falls Monique will be dead." 

Harry didn't stop to hear more, drawing his wand he moved to leap up onto the stage when Fleur's hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"Wait, look."

* * *

Monique was struggling, forcing almost all he strength into her shield, out of her peripheral vision she saw Professor Radcliffe moving towards the stage, preparing to stop the attack and that just would not do. 

She would not let Colleen have the satisfaction of defeating her.

Summoning what strength she could spare from her shield, she held out her other arm, shouted her charm and preyed.

She was rewarded a second later when the constant fire from Colleen's wand ceased and the instrument in question came flying over the top of the remaining flames.

Dropping her shield she dodged the fireball fired at her and caught the wand out of the air and aimed both at the steaming and very angry bird, earning her a cheer from the crowd.

"Do you think this crowd is a little bit one sided." She smiled.

"It is irrelevant," snarled the bird "I am still going to defeat you."

"We shall see." She grinned "Incendio."

Colleen dived sideways as the flames soared towards her, singing her tail feathers, further removing her capacity for flight.

Colleen yelled out in pain as what remained of her tail smoked. She might not have been able to fly, but she could still jump.

Monique's eye flew open as her adversary leapt into the air, throwing continuous strings of fireballs as she went.

Monique dived sideways, skidding along the platform, only just stopping short of flying over the edge.

She rolled to the side just in time to see another fireball impact where her head had just been earning a gasp from the crowd.

Colleen WAS trying to kill her.

Rolling again she spun onto her back just in time to fire a Flame Freezing Charm at the fireball aimed at her head, the weight of the ice sending it plummeting to the ground, shattering at her feet.

* * *

"We've got to stop this." Said Harry "They're going to kill each other if we don't." 

"We can't." replied Fleur, equally worried "Neither has given up or is incapacitated and neither have done anything outside the rules, there are no grounds for us to call off the match, that's what you get for not setting enough rules."

The Professors and most of the older students who weren't cheering on with the younger students were also watching worriedly as both the competitors threw fire and water at each other, both showing signs of weakening.

* * *

Monique dodged to the left as Colleen threw a blasting hex from her newly recovered wand. 

Rolling to the ground she threw her own back, the now human Veela mimicking her movements, they couldn't keep this up for much longer, they must have been fighting for over twenty minutes and they were both half dead.

By this time the central platform was a wreck, the floor of the platform was broken with bits of wood sticking up at mad angles, parts of the floor had been turned to ice while others were lava, it was a disaster waiting to happen, if one of them took a wrong step they could either incinerate themselves in the flames or impale themselves on one of the pieces of ice or platform debris.

Monique fired the most powerful blasting hex she could at Colleen at the same time as another curse flew at her; the pair collided in mid air creating an explosion that threw both off their feet.

* * *

The audience watched intently, waiting for one of the girls to move. 

Harry jumped up into the platform while Fleur ran up the steps.

"The first to move wins the match." Announced Madam Maxime, her voice was extremely tense, wanting to go to her students but as referee should could not "If neither can move within thirty seconds a draw will be declared."

Harry ran to Monique while Fleur ran to Colleen, drawing her wand Fleur muttered a series of diagnostic spells.

"No serious injuries. Many scratches, cuts and burns, but mainly just exhaustion."

Moving over to Monique she drew the same conclusion.

"The match is over, the result...a draw." Announced Madam Maxime as a pair of Healer's ran up onto the platform and began to treat the two "Will they be alright?"

"Oh yes," replied one of the Healer's "Give us a couple of hours and they will in a position that I will consider good enough to allow them to duel."

"Understood," she nodded before turning to the students "Assuming the competitors are well enough and want to continue I will let the competition resume in two hours when our former champion and our DAA teacher will duel, both the student contestants will go through to the finals."

The students began to filter out of the hall; a few of them remained out of concern for their friends, moving up on to the remains of the platform to be nearer to them.

Madam Maxime began making repairs on floor, walking up beside Daniel as she did.

"Do you think you can handle three opponents?" she asked.

"Why do you assume that I will win, there are going to be two Veela's battling you know."

"I doubt that you would enter into a competition like this without having a way of fighting against that ability, especially as it was a guarantee that you would have been fighting at least one Veela, plus I think that after this summer you will probably be a better dueller than Fleur, especially as she never uses her flight abilities in battle...So do you think you can win?"

Harry smiled and looked up at her.

"We shall see."

* * *

"Combatants onto the platform please." Called Madame Maxime. 

Harry and Fleur walked up onto the platform and drew their wands.

"Contestants ready."

"Are you sure you want to do this Daniel," smiled Fleur "Remember what happened last time we duelled."

A grin spread on Daniels face.

"Don't worry; I'll go easy on you."

Fleur's eyes widened in surprise before narrowing.

_You'll pay for that._

_We will see._

"Begin."

Harry immediately fired off a cluster of spells before rolling to his right, dodging the same spells sent his way by Fleur.

Spinning to sideways he returned fire as a pair of spells passed close enough to his head to brush past his magically lengthened hair.

They traded spells for several minutes, both patiently waiting to implement their respective plans for victory, one of the advantages and disadvantages of training together under the same tutors for so long is that they both knew the others tactics.

Harry heard Fleur begin to whisper a curse that was familiar to him, ducking he launched himself to the left as the hail of flowers passed him before circling back around for another attack.

Ducking away from the swarm again he was luckily enough to dodge Fleur's next spell as well. With a roll he aimed his wand at the flowers and blaster them with flame burning them to ash within a second, much to the approval of his supporters among the students.

Not waiting for the ash to settle he fired a wind charm at the powder, sending it straight towards Fleur, engulfing her in a large black swirling cloud.

Harry heard coughing from inside the cloud and wasted no time in sending cords of silk in to finish the job.

After three seconds of nothing but coughing he banished the ash to reveal a neatly bound Fleur Delacour, her hands tied behind her back and her ankles tied together in such away as to make it very difficult for her to remain upright especially while trying to cough up half the cloud.

"Professor Radcliffe wins." announced Olympe with a certain amount of amusement.

Harry wasted no time in going over to Fleur and cancelling the spells upon her.

"Sorry about the cloud." He apologised handing over her wand which she had dropped when she was bound.

"It's ok Daniel," she smiled brightly, casting a cleaning charm to get rid of the rest of the ash "You did it Daniel...You defeated me."

"It was a dirty win though." He sighed "You couldn't see, I should have defeated you fairly."

"It was only dirty in the respect that my robes were covered in ash, it was a perfectly legal win, and a very quick and clever one if I may say so, well done."

Giving a quick kiss on the cheek she gave him a push towards the steps as Monique climbed onto the platform to duel Fleur.

"Go on, I have a Head Girl to defeat."

The next two battles were won by Fleur as she defeated Monique and then Colleen in short order, much to the annoyance of the latter. Harry then went on to defeat Monique until there was only two duals left, himself verses Colleen and then (if he won) against all three of them at once.

"Contestants ready." Said Olympe as Harry and Colleen prepared themselves "Begin."

* * *

Colleen began to bombard Harry with spells trying to get rid of him as quickly as possible, understanding that he was probably the better dueller, but much to her annoyance the Professor did not cast a single spell back. 

"What are you waiting for?" She demanded loudly "Fight."

He did not answer; he just kept dodging her spells.

"Fight dam it!" she shouted hurling curse after curse at him, an occasional fire ball was thrown into the mix as well.

* * *

"Do you see what he's doing?" smiled Monique. 

"Yes," replied Fleur "It's very clever, the same tactic you used."

"Yes, get her so angry that she makes a mistake. Do you think she will fall for it twice?"

"After all the embarrassment she has suffered in the last few hours I would say yes."

"Fine!" Yelled Colleen out of frustration, before snarling "Dodge this one."

The air around her began to swirl and her hair began to flutter as if in a breeze.

"Oh dear," sighed Monique "He's had it, he hasn't react fast enough, he's lost."

* * *

Colleen grinned as the Professor's face relaxed and began to stare at her dumbly, his wand falling to the ground beside him. 

"You've lost Professor," she smiled before walking up to him. "Kneel."

She grinned widely as he dropped to his knees in front of her, looking up at her submissively much to the disappointment of the crowd.

She crouched down in front of him and leaned in to him so that her mouth was by his ear.

"This is what you get when you turn me down." She whispered "Next time I suggest you accept my offer."

"I don't think so."

Colleen's eyes went wide as she realised that she had been tricked, but all too late.

* * *

The entire audience watched astonished as the very non-entranced Professor wandlessly blasted Colleen to the other end of the platform, landing unconscious on the edge. 

He had done it...he had overcome her Veela powers.

Harry looked down at the crowd who were watch him fascinated as he slowly stood and silently summoned both wands to him.

"Next time curse me when you have the chance." He told his unconscious opponent before turning to Olympe who like the rest was staring astonished, I don't think even she had expected him to not be affected by Veela power at all, she probably expected him to curse Colleen before she got the chance to use her powers. "I take it I won."

Shaking her head clear she announced "Professor Radcliffe wins."

There was utter silence for several seconds before Fleur began to clap, quickly followed by Monique and then the rest of the hall.

"Duellists on to the stage for the final round please." called Olympe while some of the other Professor's expanded the size of the platform "Professor Radcliffe versus our three champions."

Fleur and Monique climbed onto the platform as the Healers revived an extremely angry Colleen, her hands were smoking so much that Harry was worried how long it would be before her wand caught fire.

"Good luck dear." Smiled Fleur as she passed him.

"Good luck sir." Echoed Monique as they moved alongside Colleen.

"Contestants ready?" asked Olympe receiving nods from all "Begin."

Before the second letter had even left her lips Harry was already moving as a fireball and a pair of curses flew into the space he had previously been occupying.

He rolled and spun back around to the trio, two of whom where moving to surround him, firing a couple of stunners as distractions he moved so that he was on the edge of the platform closest to Fleur.

Raising a powerful shield he braised himself for the impact as three spells collided with his shield.

He watched as Fleur realised all too late that his shield was reflective as Colleen's bludgeoning hex rebounded and knocked her unconscious. Colleen was further away and had more time to react as Fleur's stunner sailed through the space she had previously been occupying.

Monique, not in a position to need worry about reflecting spells continued to bombard his shield, her explosive hexes sending vibrations through the platform.

Jumping to the left Harry dodged one of the incoming hexes before rolling to face Monique, ignoring Colleen as much as possible.

* * *

Colleen was furious, he was ignoring her completely, only paying attention long enough to dodge her attacks, he was going to pay for all the humiliation he had put her through...He was going to pay.

* * *

Harry smiled to himself as he saw Colleen begin to change, her skin changing to feathers, it was all playing out exactly as he planned, now to implement one of Adam's first lessons.

* * *

The revived and injured Fleur watched from the sidelines as her mate continued with his plan. 

While the Healers treated hers injuries she smiled to herself at how easily he was able to get Colleen to do what he wanted, he had planned this dual down to the last detail. Their only chance for success now was that Monique would see the attack coming.

* * *

As Colleen took to the air Harry put the last part of his plan into action. 

Making sure he was exactly between his two opponents he conjured up a cloud of dust, before expanding it around himself and Monique.

Hearing the tell tale rush of air he ducked as a fireball flew over him.

Quickly muttering his spell he cast a shield over Monique, strong enough to prevent her injury but not so much as to stop the force behind the fireball from throwing her off of the platform and out of the competition, leaving just himself and Colleen, now for the most risky part of the duel he reached down the link.

* * *

Colleen screeched out as she saw Monique go flying out of the far side of the dust cloud. 

She had had it, no more planning, no more attempts at tactics, she would burn him out of this competition if it was the last thing she did.

She began hurling fireball after fireball into the cloud, bombarding every square inch of the concealed platform.

* * *

The crowd watched transfixed as more and more fire was thrown into the cloud. 

Was he still in there?

Was he unconscious?

Was he...dead?

* * *

Colleen finally stopped throwing fire as she dropped to the platform exhausted. 

"G...Got you." She breathed heavily "I got you."

"Are you sure." Answered an all too familiar voice from the cloud.

"What..." she breathed "It's impossible, you can't..."

She never got the chance to finish as one of her own fireballs flew out of the cloud and threw her off the platform.

* * *

The audience stared speechless as the Professor calmly walked out of the dust cloud, completely intact with not so much as a singing sleeve. 

"P..." attempted Olympe, equally astonished by what she had just seen "Professor Radcliffe...wins...wins the Duelling Competition."

There was another utter silence, no one quite believing what they had seen, how had he controlled Colleen's fire, he was human, he shouldn't have been able to do it.

Again it was left to Fleur to start the applauding, which rapidly increased to the level of a deafening roar.

Harry smiled widely as Fleur ran up onto the stage and embraced him, earning several wolf whistles from the crowd.

"You did it Daniel, you did it, you won." She beamed.

"I did...didn't I." he smiled before turning to the crowd.

"Thank you...thank you everyone." he called, raising his hands to quieten then "But I have a couple of surprises for you; it was originally one but now I have a second."

The crowd stood in silence, waiting for his response.

"Firstly I would like you to put your hands together for my replacement and your new DAA Professor; Monique Dominique."

Monique blushed and glared at him for embarrassing her as the hall applauded loudly.

"And secondly there is something I wish to show you."

The crowd fell silent again, curiously awaiting what ever it was he was going to show them.

Drawing his wand he aimed it at himself.

"Finite Incantatem**."**

He watched grinning as the crowd gasped when his glamour spells cancelled themselves.

Forty jaws hit the floor as the Boy-Who-Lived was revealed to them.

"This is Harry Potter signing off everyone, it's been a pleasure working with and teaching you." he beamed, taking Fleur's hand in his left and reaching for his portkey with his right.

"Thank you Beauxbatons and goodnight."

With that the pair vanished into thin air to the gasping of the students and teachers alike.


	54. CH54 Magic Dance

Chapter 54 – Magic Dance

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:31__st__August 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:Afternoon_

Harry and Fleur appeared in the Chateau's Sitting Room, barely managing to reach the sofa before collapsing in hysterics.

"Arry..." gasped Fleur in between bouts of laughter "That was...that was brilliant, their...their faces..."

"It was good wasn't it?" Smiled Harry as he managed to get control over his laughter "I don't think they will be forgetting that in a while."

"I take it you enjoyed yourselves." Smiled Delphine as she walked in "Who won?"

"Arry of course," replied Fleur "Against me, Colleen and Monique."

"Three of you!" she exclaimed "I though it was only supposed to be two."

"It was," replied Harry "But Monique and Colleen drew, they have killed each other in their duel. I had to face all three at once, but thanks to Colleen's temper and my Occlumency training it was a lot easier than it would have been if it had just been two of them."

"What do you mean?" asked Delphine.

"He used his Occlumency training to resist her Veela powers and got her so angry in the last match that she wasn't concentrating; he managed to get her to take both of us out, before throwing one of her own fireballs back at her."

"He did what?" she exclaimed, turning to Harry "How did you do that, Adam hasn't even started teaching you to be an Elemental?"

"I used the link and what I remember from seeing you and Gabrielle controlling fire, I literally caught the fireball out of the air, I was surprised it worked actually, the first time it didn't." he explained uncurling the fingers on his right hand to reveal burnt skin.

"Oh Arry!" exclaimed Fleur as she and her mother quickly drew their wands and aiming them at his hand "Why didn't you say something?"

"It's not that bad." He replied "I've had worse."

"That's beside the point." Replied Fleur hotly, annoyed that her mate would insist on being so stubborn regarding his health "What am I going to do with you?" she sighed.

"Well, you could always...join me on a picnic."

"I could always..." she stuttered before realising what he had said "We could do what?"

Dimitri walked into the room carrying a hamper.

"Join me on a picnic." He repeated taking the hamper "Lunch is all packed."

"You...I...pardon?"

"Join me on a picnic please My Lady."

"I...I...ok." she stuttered.

"Excellent." he smiled putting the hamper down "Lets go and get changed into something more appropriate and then we can get going."

* * *

Fifteen minute later they were heading up the slope behind the Chateau; Harry dressed in a simple pair of jeans, a t-shirt and a jacket and Fleur in a simple light blue sundress, still fairly stunned that Harry had thought of this. 

"Where did you get the idea for a picnic?"

"I was trying to think of something special we could do for our last day before we go to Hogwarts, a picnic seemed like a good idea."

"It was," she smiled "I haven't had a picnic in years."

"Here we are." smiled Harry as they reached a flatter area of the slope.

The area was like a small Eden, a couple of willow trees provided shade from the bright afternoon sun, a small stream trickled its way between them before running into a small natural pond just below them then continued down the hill towards the Chateau.

Dragonflies and butterflies were all around them and birds could be heard calling from the hedges accompanied by the sound of the occasional grasshoppers.

"I always liked this place." Smiled Fleur "I used to love to sit up here and watch the sun go down."

"Take a seat." Smiled Harry as he spread a large blanket out on the ground and began to unpack the food "Dinner is served."

Fleur was shocked by how much preparation Harry had done for this, the food alone was obviously well thought out. There were apples, pears, oranges, melons, pineapples, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, red and while grapes. The sandwiches were also as varied; egg mayonnaise, chicken, turkey, tuna and sweet corn, cheese and pickle, smoked salmon, and several types of pâté, and on top of all that there were chicken drum sticks, sausage rolls, slices of turkey and ham, several types of a Muggle food that Fleur was later told were called crisps and she wasn't even going to get into the various drinks, cakes and desserts.

"Arry...how long have you been planning this?" she asked sitting down beside him as he began to pour her some champagne.

"Since halfway through our meal in the restaurant," he smiled, handing her a glass while he poured out his own "I wanted to take you out to dinner, but never having gone out like that before I would still be very out of my element, but a picnic is more relaxed and personnel, not to mention I have never been on a picnic before."

"Never?" she asked.

"No, this is my first; I just hope I don't muck it up."

"Somehow...I don't think you will." She smiled, holding her glass out "To firsts."

"To firsts."

They spent the next few hours quietly drinking, eating, serving each other food and discussing old times, Fleur telling Harry about her life before he had met her, about the time she had first been introduced to the Veela Matriarch, when she first met Colleen, (which was remarkably similar account to the time when Harry had met Malfoy except it had been Colleen's parents shop and that Fleur was older than Colleen), the time she first managed to control fire and almost set the Chateau on fire and her first disastrous attempt at flying when she ended up crashing into one of the Chateau's ponds.

Harry then told her of the first time he had flown, his first run in with Fluffy, the time Dobby had appeared at the Dursley's, flying to Hogwarts in the car and his favourite scene of all; Draco being turned into a ferret, that story got a nice laugh from both of them.

It was surprising that they had been together for the temporal equivalent of nine months and they had never really just sat down and talked about their pasts, they had of course talked about certain parts but not a conversation dedicated entirely to it.

"That was wonderful Arry," Smiled Fleur as she put down her empty bowl, previously filled with strawberries and cream "Most appetising."

"Thanks." He blushed, shifting back so that his back was against one of the trees "I'm glad you liked it."

"I would be very surprised if I didn't." she smiled as she moved so that she was sitting between his legs, leaning back against him before resting her head on his shoulder. "What did you have planned for the rest of the evening?"

"Well for one," he began, reaching into the hamper "I want to give you this."

He brought out a small box.

"Oh Arry, you shouldn't have." She beamed kissing him on the cheek, opening the lid of the box revealed a small round sphere containing silvery smoke.

"A feelings sphere." She gasped "Already filled, what's in it?"

"Touch it and find out." He smiled.

She looked at him curiously before lifting the sphere out of its box and squeezing.

As the feelings inside were released she was thankful that she was sitting against Harry, if she had been standing she would have collapsed at the weight of feelings that came crashing into her.

She instantly new exactly what the feeling was, it was all Harry's feelings for her, not just his love, but what he felt whenever they came back together after a day apart, what he felt when she kissed him and held him, what he felt when she congratulated him for winning the Duelling Competition, what he felt when they were making passionate love and what he felt when he would just lay in bed watching her sleep.

After what seemed like an eternity she did the only thing she could do under the bliss of all those feelings and dropped the sphere letting it fall quietly onto the grass.

As the feelings subsided she discovered that she was laying back against Harry her head thrown back against his shoulder, her breathing was heavy and laboured.

"That was...that was incredible," she gasped "It was...it was just...wow."

"Your welcome." He chuckled, stroking her forehead as it lay on his shoulder, while his other hand reached into the hamper again and withdrew his own clear Feelings Sphere "I was hoping you would be willing to do the same for mine."

"Of course Arry." She smiled, taking his "Just...give me a moment to recover...next time I don't think I will squeeze quite that hard...that was quite intense."

"Imagine how draining it was for me to summon up all that at once, I have brought a Pepper-Up Potion with us encase you were to fill it now."

"Get it out then, because I am about to do so." She smiled before taking the sphere between both her hands and squeezing tight while focusing on all her thoughts, feelings and memories of Arry.

There was a bright flash as silver strings of light like memories from a pensive darted from Fleur's head and chest before passing through the sphere and back again, each string adding a bit more to the silver cloud within the sphere.

Fleur could feel Harry holding her tightly as her feelings were copied and stored, after what seemed like hours she slumped and the sphere slipped out of her hands and fell into her lap as she collapsed back against her mate.

She felt Harry very gently lift her head and pour the potion into her mouth, instantly beginning to restore her strength.

"Thank you Arry, that was more exhausting than I thought it would be."

Harry placed her sphere back in the hamper and pocketed his own.

"Aren't you going to try it?" she asked, her strength was now returned but she was so comfortable that she did not feel like moving.

"I'll wait," he smiled "But first I want to ask you a question."

"Yes." She asked.

"When are you going to drop the French accent when you speak English?"

Fleur's eyes widened and to her mate.

"What do you mean?"

"I know that accent of your's is forced."

"Why do you say that?" she asked turning over so she was lying on him.

"Firstly every other French person I have talked to in English has spoken English better than you and secondly you accent is too inconsistent, sometimes you accent a word and the next time you wont, sometimes you have a heavy accent and sometimes you have a light accent, its too inconsistent to be real."

She looked at him for several seconds before smiling.

"How long have you known?"

""Since about our third repeated week, why do you do it?"

"Because it is sexy and I kind of like it...Don't you Arry?" she replied in proper English, she was obviously unable to pronounce his name properly even without her fake accent.

"Oh Yes, but I can think of at least two of my female Gryffindor House mates that will get really annoyed by it and I want them to like and accept you."

She smiled back at him "Ok Arry, I will stop accenting my English, but remember my accent may be better that I made it sound but it is still not perfect."

"Thanks." He replied giving her a kiss on the nose before drawing his wand and levitating a Wizarding radio out of the hamper.

Setting it down beside them he turning it on to some slow romantic music "My Lady, may I have this dance?"

She turned to him shocked.

"Since when could you dance?" she asked laughing lightly.

"I can't, but I get the feeling that I will learn quickly." He smiled.

Giving a light chuckle she climbed to her feet and extending her hand.

"Yes kind sir...you may have this dance."


	55. CH55 An Eternity In A Second

Chapter 55 – An Eternity In A Second

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:1__st__ September 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:Morning_

It was time.

Harry, Fleur, The Delacour's, Colette and Adam were gathered in the training room to say goodbye.

"We're going to miss you Harry." Sighed Delphine as she hugged him "Take care of each other and watch out for meddling old fools."

"We will mother." Smiled Fleur.

"Say goodbye to Gabrielle for me." Added Harry before turning to Colette and his mate.

"See you two at Hogwarts."

"Take care of yourself Arry." Smiled Fleur, giving him a tight hug before swapping places with Colette.

"See you Antlers," she grinned "Come back to us in one piece, you still owe me a threesome."

"I promise I'll be in one piece." Harry chuckled.

"We had better be going." commented Dimitri, looking at his watch and heading towards the door.

"Bye Arry." Sighed Fleur, tears in the corners of her eyes.

"Bye Fleur." He returned "See you soon."

The group left the room slowly waving goodbyes, leaving just Harry and Adam.

As soon as the group walking around the corner and out of sight Harry sighed and turned towards Adam who was busy preparing the room, he had already magically drawn a pentagon on the floor and had arranged many candles around the room.

"So what do we do?"

"Sit down in the middle of the pentagon opposite me." Adam explained as he sat down where he had said.

"Now what?" asked Harry.

"Sit still." Came the response before Adam began to chant in a language that Harry did not know.

The light in the room started to get brighter...and brighter.

The light got so bright that Harry had to close his eyes and yet the light continued to brighten.

It brightened and brightened until the light coming out of the crack under the door was like the beam from a light house before all of a sudden...the light went out...

* * *

Hermione, Ron and Ginny clambered into their carriage of the Hogwarts Express. 

"What was the masked man like Hermione?" asked Ginny.

"Very polite," she replied sitting down in her seat, Crookshanks immediately settling into her lap "Not to mention very fast and very dangerous, the way he was throwing those swords about was down right scary."

"Is your house repaired yet?"

"Mostly," she replied looking out of the window "There are still some...some...I don't believe it."

"What?" asked Ginny as she moved to the window to see what Hermione was staring at.

"Please tell me that's not who I think it is?"

"It is," sighed Ginny as she saw the person in question "Phlegm."

"Fleur!" exclaimed Ron, moving faster than he normally did to stare at the French beauty, wrapped up in light furs whilst she said goodbye to who were probably her parents.

Hermione and Ginny sent him death glares making him move back to his seat.

"What on earth is she doing here?" asked Ginny as she returned her sight to the Veela's.

"I dread to think," replied Hermione before her eyes widened at a possibility "Oh God, I really hope she's not the new DADA teacher."

"Oh Merlin no." gasped Ginny "Anything but that, I would even prefer Umbridge over her self superiority talk."

"I wonder who the girl is with her, she looks like a Veela and she's getting on the train to so she's obviously coming with us, but what job could she possibly have, all the teaching positions are already filled."

"I really hope we are not going to have two 'self superior' Veela DADA Professors." Gasped Ginny. Ron looked decidedly more keen about the idea.

"They are not DADA teachers." Said a voice from the doorway "Wotcher all."

"Tonks?" exclaimed Hermione "What are you doing here?"

"I am currently on Auror protection detail; why else do you think I am in uniform, Halloween fancy dress?" she grinned "No, Madam Bones ordered a dozen of us to guard the train, didn't you see the other Auror's on the station?"

"Well yes, but I thought it was probably Fudges orders and I doubt he would have thought about actually guarding the train once it had left the station."

Tonks chuckled and squatted down beside them, putting her feet up on the seats opposite.

"It sounds like him doesn't it but no, we are here on the Director's orders which means there are Auror's here, they will be here all the way to Hogwarts, they will actually know what they are doing and will be able to, at the very least, put up a good fight if anything goes wrong. It's mainly thanks to that article of yours Hermione, Fudge dares not do anything against Madam Bones regarding security encase she orders and enquiry of his office or the public hear about it. Madam Bones wanted me to pass along her personal thanks to you."

"It's good to hear that something good came of that, I ended up getting heaps of mail, half of them saying 'well done', 'good for you', 'way to go' or 'you are in inspiration to us all' and the rest saying 'you glory seeker', 'you lying piece of Dragon excrement' or else trying to kill me by exploding and splattering hot wax everywhere."

"Ooh, nasty." Exclaimed Ginny "What happened with that one?"

"Luckily Remus recognised the signs of the spell and threw it away so that it exploded safely on the other side of the room."

They were interrupted by the door sliding open.

"Hey guys."

"Hey Nev, Luna." Returned Ron "This is Tonks; she's one of the Auror guards, Tonks this is Neville and Luna, you may have met briefly at the Ministry."

"Hello." Greeted Neville nervously, it was not everyday that you saw Auror's with pink hair.

"Hi."

"Wotcher folks."

As the pair settled in an Auror in his blue robed uniform knocked and entered.

"Sorry to intrude Auror Tonks, Auror Kingsley wanted me to inform you that the train will be leaving imminently and that you are now in charge of the detail."

"Thank you Williams, dismissed." Replied Tonks.

"You're in charge of the detail?" asked Ginny as Williams left.

"Yep, I got promoted; you are now talking to N. Tonks, Level Two Auror, Detail Leader."

"Congratulations." Said Hermione "When did this happen?"

"A few days ago, Madam Bones has asked many of the normal L.E.O's to become Auror's in preparation for the coming war and they needed more Detail Leaders. Kingsley was also promoted; he's now a Level One Tactical Commander, he's now the highest rank short of actually commanding the entire Auror division."

"Wow," replied Ginny "That's wonderful, that should be a big help to our side."

"Speaking of our side," commented Luna from Neville's lap "Does anyone know anything more about Harry?"

"We haven't seen him since he left Hogwarts in the middle of the summer, he..." began Hermione before stopping and listening "We'll tell you later, we've got company."

On cue there was a knock on the door before it slid open to reveal a pair of blonds.

"Ello, may we join you."

"Wotcher Fleur." Greeted Tonks brightly, gesturing to the empty seats, ignoring the death glares she was receiving from Hermione and Ginny.

The others all greeted her with different levels of enthusiasm, Luna was pleasantly surprised when Neville pulled her back tight against him and tried to not look at the beautiful women now occupying their compartment.

"Everyone I vould like you to meet Colette, my best friend."

Luna deciding to go against the will of the other girls, stood and shook both the Veela's hands.

"Luna Lovegood," she greeted "This is my boyfriend Neville Longbottom."

Neville tried his best to keep cognisant while acting the civilised man, kissing the back of both extended hands.

"A pleasure to meet you."

"Such a gentleman." Smiled Colette, making Neville blush "Would you be so kind as to introduce me to your friends."

"Certainly." he replied rather UN-certainly "This is Hermione Granger."

"Hello." Replied the bushy haired witch, trying not to assume automatically that this Veela was like Fleur.

"Ginny Weasley."

"Hi."

"Ron Weasley."

"..."Ron replied mutely as Colette gently stretched, letting her fur coat slide of her shoulders to reveal the pale skin at the top of her arms.

"Colette, behave yourself." Warned Fleur "And turn of your powers, even your introducer is struggling to remain himself."

Looking to Neville, Colette could see him staring as hard as he could towards his girlfriend muttering something that looked like 'I like Luna' over and over under his breath.

Shrugging she pulled her coat back up onto her shoulders and turning to Ron who was looking very embarrassed.

"My apologize, I do like a good tease," she explained before turning to Neville who was still muttering his mantra "Your will is strong," she complimented before giving him a kiss on the cheek "If you ever decide that you want another lover let me know."

Neville's eyes went so wide that they were beginning to look like bludgers, much to the amusement of Luna who, far from staring daggers at the Veela, was actually beaming widely at Neville.

"Colette," said Fleur again "Remember the rules about teacher/student relations."

"Rules can be so boring at times." Colette sighed whilst moving back to her seat.

"What subjects will you be teaching Professors?" asked Luna.

"It's just Colette and Fleur when we are not in class." Explained Colette "We will be teaching two of the four new classes; Fleur's going to be doing History of Magical Creatures which will be supplementing the normal History Of Magic classes and I will be teaching Alternative Magic."

"Alternative Magic?" asked Hermione sitting forward; Fleur and Colette had to suppress smiles as Hermione reacted exactly the way Harry said she would when they started talking about their jobs.

"The way other cultures use magic among other things."

"What are the other classes that will be taught this year?" asked Neville from his position under Luna, now having regained his composure.

"Muggle Defence and Duelling," replied Tonks "Professor Dumbledore is bringing in a Master."

"A real Duelling Master?" asked Ron "Who is he and is he actually any good?"

"He's a friend of ours actually," smiled Fleur "His names Daniel Radcliffe and he's been teaching Defence Against Assault and Flying at Beauxbatons all summer, every single one of his students passed with flying colours, two of them have even taken over his positions now that he is coming to Hogwarts."

"Well, at least he can actually teach." Sighed Ginny "Every other new teacher that has come to the school has had to leave or has been useless, dangerous or has had to leave."

"Don't worry Umbridge isn't coming back." Replied Tonks with a knowing smile "DADA will be much better this year."

"Who?" said all the students at once.

"You will find out." Said Tonks standing and heading for the door "Now if you will excuse me I have a job to do."

Tonks left grinning as the students began to ponder on who their latest attempt at a Professor was going to be.

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:1__st__ September 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:Morning_

There was silence at the Chateau Delacour, after the flash of light the last of the Chateau's residence had left, leaving just the staff and House Elves.

One minute after the flash another followed and two people appeared, one was the same as when he had left but the other was not.

The boy with a lightning shaped scar had grown, he was taller, his muscles where fully developed into an athletic figure, his demeanour had changed as well, he was standing tall, there was an experienced look to him that complemented the maturity he already had.

Two swords hung across his back and a pair of guns rested in their holsters at his hips. The shirt and jeans he had left in were now accompanied by a leather jacket, all of which had a worn and used look to them.

Harry turned to Adam.

"When are we?"

"About a minute after when we left. Colette, Fleur and her parents are now on their way to London."

"Let's go and meet them." Said Harry eagerly.

"No," replied Adam "There are other things we must do."

"What?"

"First we need to take a trip to Diagon Alley and then we have some Veela to visit."


	56. CH56 Air, Water, Earth And Fire

Chapter 56 – Air, Water, Earth And Fire

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:1__st__ September 2001 AD_

_Country:England - London_

_Location:Diagon Alley_

_Time:Lunchtime_

As the two cloaked figures walked down the empty street, the few other shoppers gave them a wide berth, recognising the look of someone who didn't want to be known and therefore...was not there.

Reaching the shop they wanted they opened the door and quietly walked in, the taller of the two figures giving one last look around the street before disappearing through the door.

"Good morning." Greeted the old shop keeper, emerging from the back of the shop "How may I help you today?"

The first figure reached into his robes and withdrew his wand and showed it to him.

"Ah," said the shop keeper, recognising his work "I take it you would like to remain anonymous?"

The figure nodded.

"Very well." Smiled the shop keeper, waving his hand in the direction of the front of the shop, as he did so the door sealed itself and the drapes closed across the window.

"Welcome back Mr Potter, how has your wand been treating you?"

"Very well, thank you Mr Ollivander's." returned Harry as he and Adam lowered their hoods.

"Interesting choice of looks Mr Potter, but at the same time, very you." He smiled before turning to Harry's companion.

"Now...There's a face I have not seen for many a decade." Smiled Ollivander's "How have you been old friend?"

"Well, thank you. How has business been treating you?"

"Same as ever old friend; slow but steady."

"Is there anyone you don't know?" asked Harry turning to Adam "First Dumbledore, now Mr Ollivander's."

"Of course but Albus and our resident wand maker where at school together."

"Albus is a few years older than me, we both met Adam at the same time." explained Ollivander "Now what can I do for you today."

"We need some Battle Wands." Replied Adam.

Ollivander's looked as his friend, his stare hard and piercing before a slight grin spread across his wrinkled face.

"Preparing for a war are you?"

"Let's just say we want to be ready, how long would it take you to make a dozen?"

"They are restricted items," said Ollivander's, just reminding Adam of the fact, but completely content to ignore it "Give me a week, what else do you need."

"Harry needs a staff."

The smile that Ollivander's wore after this statement was bright enough to blind a man.

"A staff indeed! Into the back quickly." He grinned excitedly as he disappeared between the rows of shelves.

Harry looked at Adam for a moment before following the wand maker.

Passing through the series of passages between the shelves they ended up in a medium sized zoom, the sides of which were made out of more shelves, each filled to the brim with wand making materials just like the shop in France had been except there were many many more.

"Wow."

"Welcome to my workshop Mr Potter, this is where I work MY magic and this is where I create the wands that over eighty percent of British wizards use."

Harry and Adam watched interested as Ollivander's wandered around the room, collecting equipment and various other things that Harry did not understand.

"Right," grinned Ollivander's moving to a tall platform about a foot square near the centre of the room "Mr Potter, come here please."

Harry walked towards the table and saw a sheet of polished marble lying on it.

"Please put your hand on the stone Mr Potter."

Harry looked at him cautiously before doing so, as soon as his finger touched the stone; his hand was sucked flat against the surface and stuck there like glue.

"What the?"

"Don't worry Mr Potter, the stone is just finding the best materials for your staff's base form."

"Base form?" asked Harry.

"Staffs aren't like wands Harry," explained Adam "Once the base form is created you don't stop there; you add other magical items, ingredients and anything you think worthy or adding to your staff to them throughout your lifetime in order to make them as powerful and adaptive as possible, rather than being the jack of all traits and a master of one like a wand, a staff is the Master of all traits, an artisan of some and the jack of none."

"Wow." Replied Harry earning a chuckle from Ollivander's

"Do all staff's look the same?" he continued.

"Oh no," replied Ollivander's as he started placing an arrangement of cores, woods and crystals around the stone under Harry's hand "They change every time a new ingredient is added and they also change to suit the personality of the owner."

He turned to the gab between one of the shelving units and raised his wrinkled hand.

There was a bang before a long piece of wood came flying out from between the shelves, coming to a stop in the shop keeper's extended hand.

"This is my staff Mr Potter; I created this over eighty years ago from oak and the heart-string of a Ukrainian Ironbelly, you would not believe how hard it was to get a hold of one of those, I've only seen five in my entire career."

Harry looked at the staff in wonder, the staff was not like any wand that he had ever seen, wands were thin, straight and polished whereas the staff in front of him was tall thick and anything but straight, with the texture of the actual tree the branch as cut from, complete with knots, bends and three short stumpy leafless branches coming out the top. Harry also noticed a series of symbols carved into the wood, some look like small pictures whilst others were just letters and shapes.

"In time Mr Potter's yours could be as powerful as this."

The stone under Harry's hand flashed.

"And it looks like we are about to find out what your staff will look like." Smiled the wand maker tapping the stone "You can remove your hand now Mr Potter."

As Harry's hand separated two beams of light shot out from the stone and touched two of the woods.

"Oak and Willow," explained Ollivander's "Strength and endurance mixed in with flexibility, a good base. Now for the core..."

The beams moves and merged into one, but instead of pointing at one of the surrounding cores they aimed themselves at the pocket of Harry's jeans, from which the tip of his wand could be seen.

"A phoenix feather," continued Ollivander's "One from the same bird as your wand by the look of it."

"Do you have a spare?" asked Harry.

"Phoenix's don't give spares Harry." Explained Adam "They are very careful with whom they give their feathers to and they only give the number that you actually need."

"So I've got to ask Fawkes for..."

Harry never got the chance to finish as a bright flame exploded in the middle of the room, revealing the phoenix in question.

"It looks like you can ask him now." Smiled Ollivander's "Welcome my friend, it's been too long."

Fawkes called back a greeting before moving to settle on the top of Ollivander's staff.

"Does Dumbledore know you are here?" asked Harry.

The phoenix trilled which Harry somehow understood meant '_No_'.

"How did you know we were talking about you?"

"He didn't," explained Ollivander's "He could sense when the feather in your wand got close."

"Why hasn't Dumbledore used that to find me?"

Fawkes trilled again which Harry again understood to mean '_He does not know that I can sense your wand_.'

"How can I understand you?" asked Harry.

'_I can express my meaning through my song_.'

"Oh...Err, Fawkes...may I have another of your feathers for my staff, I would..."

Fawkes did not wait for him to finish and exploded in flame and appeared on the other side of the room, a single feather floating towards the ground where he had previously been.

"I think that's a yes Harry." Smiled Adam as the phoenix settled on to his shoulder.

"Fawkes obviously thinks very highly of you Mr Potter," smiled Ollivander's, picking up the feather and then moved to one of the walls "While I get the wood can you use that knife and prick your finger, we are going to need some of your blood and hair."

"You will need to get some from both your forms if you want it to work well for you as both Harry and Daniel." Explained Adam as Harry pulled out a strand of hair with a small grunt before picking up the knife.

When Ollivander's returned there were two drops of blood and two hairs ready and waiting on the feather, the blood slowly soaking into the feathers.

"Excellent," smiled the wand maker eagerly "Let us make you a staff."

Harry got the feeling that Ollivander was really enjoying this, even more so than he did when he sold Harry his wand.

Harry watched fascinated as the wand maker put a long shaft of oak and a thin whippy branch of the willow together with the other ingredients before beginning to chant, waving his staff around in complicated patterns as the different components fused.

The oak changing shape, forming a tall thin shaft allowing the willow wrapping itself around the oak forming a double helix of light wood around the darker wood of the oak. The two woods melded together making a long thin polished shaft, as if someone had expertly cut out and replaced some of the oak with the willow resulting in a couple of perfect spirals.

The feather, blood and hairs then floated down and sunk into the top of the shaft completing the process, with one final wave of his staff Ollivander's created a bright flash of light which faded to reveal Harry's completed staff hanging in the air before them.

Now that the ingredients had been added the staff had indeed changed, the tube shape now tapered to a point of silver metal, the top end was also capped with silver but the top surface of which was flat and expanded out further than width of the wood, like the rim of a hat, the underside of which sloped down to meat the wood.

"Very nice." Smiled Ollivander, walking around the staff "Very nice indeed, simplicity is always good."

Harry walked up to the staff and extended his hand to take it, before his hand reached the staff it leaped into his hand making Harry jump.

"Your staff is bound to your blood Harry," explained Adam "It's connected to you and in a way can think for itself."

"What do you mean?"

"For example if say Mr Malfoy picked up your staff it would not let him use if and would probably deflect his spell back against him, on the other hand if Miss Granger picked it up it would allow her to use it, though it will not react as well as if it was someone genetically linked to you that was holding your staff."

"I see." Nodded Harry as he turned the staff in his hand, looking at the top he noticed a pair of small symbols directly in the centre of the metal capping, they resembled a flame with a wing on either side "What is this?"

Ollivander's looked at the symbol and smiled "It shows Mr Potter that the core of your staff is linked to fire and flight, it will allow you to more easily control fire and flight as well as their related magic's, other symbols will appear around this one as you add more components to your staff."

Harry recalled what he had been told about phoenix's being elemental creatures.

Fawkes gave a joyful cry and raised its wings before flying over to Harry and settling on his shoulder, as the magical bird called out the symbol glowed as though actually made out of fire before slowly fading back to just being a symbol.

"Wow."

"I recommend hiding that when you go back to Hogwarts Mr Potter," suggested Ollivander's "I don't think Albus will much appreciate you having one."

"How can I hide something this big?" asked Harry, gesturing to his staff.

"Simply will it to disappear and then when you need it, will it into your hand."

Harry nodded, not convinced that it would work but he would give it a go anyway.

Closing his eyes he imagined his staff disappearing, imagining the weight not being there, imagining...

"I told you it was simple Mr Potter."

Opening his eyes Harry realised that his staff had in fact already disappeared.

"Like we said it thinks for itself, it knows want you want, imagine it back in your hand."

Harry didn't bother closing his eyes this time and simply wanted his staff to be back in his hand.

A split second it phased into view.

"Very good, when you want to add to it Mr Potter you need to hold the staff, touch the new component to the top of the staff as well as a drop of your blood and will it to meld."

"Thank you Mr Ollivander's." asked Harry as the group walked back towards the front of the shop "How much do I..."

"You owe me nothing Mr Potter; just take care of that staff."

"Thank you sir." Nodded Harry as they walked out from behind the counter and raised their hoods.

"I will send your wands to you old friend." Added Ollivander as he disappeared back into the shelves.

"Are you coming with us Fawkes?" asked Harry.

'_I will take you where ever you need to go._' Replied the phoenix.

"Are you sure?" asked Harry.

The phoenix replied by taking off and extending its tail feathers for them.

'_Hold on._'

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:1__st__ September 2001 AD_

_Country:Romania – Carpathian Mountains _

_Location:The Veela Colony_

_Time:Afternoon_

With a lick of flame and a bang the phoenix and his two passengers appeared just outside the borders of the Veela Colony.

The guards were upon them within a second, spears and fireballs aimed at the ready. Harry was about to draw his wand when phoenix song stopped him.

'_Be still_' trilled Fawkes to Harry and the guards.

As soon as the Veela saw the bird they lowered their weapons and bowed to it.

'_Harry Potter and The Guardian to see The Matriarch_' explained the fire bird before settling on Harry's shoulder.

The guards nodded before directing them towards the colony.

One of the guards again led them to The Matriarch's Hall.

Upon entering they approached and bowed to the sitting Veela.

"I was not expecting your return so soon Mr Potter, especially not in the company of a phoenix. Stand."

"I came to gain your allegiance." Explained Harry as he straightened up.

The Matriarch gave a smile.

"And what makes you believe that you will gain our allegiance this time when you could not before, just having befriended a phoenix and a being of such power is not sufficient for that." She said gesturing to Adam.

"Let us start with this." Called Harry extending his arm, his staff appearing in his palm.

"Impressive, but I need more evidence than that, merely owning a staff does not mean you can use one."

"Set me a challenge then." Replied Harry, forgetting some of his manners when addressing someone of The Matriarchs status, not that The Matriarch seemed to mind.

"Very well then," she smiled, standing up gracefully "Follow me."

The pair followed the Matriarch as she seemed to glide out of the hall.

As they exited the Matriarch called out commands in Romanian, summoning all the Veela, humans and hybrids together.

Harry muttered a quick translation charm as The Matriarch began to speak.

"My friends...Mr Potter has returned to us in an attempt to gain our allegiance...He has just asked me to prepare a challenge for him."

There was a light splattering of laughter and grins amongst the crowd, Harry suddenly got the feeling that he had just dropped himself in it; he sent a nervous glance at Adam who was standing off to the side, casually waiting to be addressed.

"Well...I say we make this a real challenge for our champion to be." She gestured three of the guards in the crowd forward before turning to him "Your challenge Mr Potter, defeat these three full Veela and you will have our allegiance."

The Veela crowd rapidly made a circle in which the four stood, Adam and Fawkes were standing to the right of The Matriarch.

Harry began reciting all he had learned from Adam over in his mind, firstly and most importantly; never reveal the extent of your skill until you have no other choice.

"Commence."

Harry immediately aimed and fired a blasting hex from his staff, having never actually used it to cast a spell before he was a little surprised by the size of the explosion created, though he did not have time to contemplate as three fireballs were launched by the already airborne Veela, being 100 Veela obviously meant faster transformation.

He dodged to the left as the fire collided with the ground beside him before spinning around for another assault.

"Accio Veela." He cried, creating an adequate distraction as all three Veela briefly lurched forward in the air, one unfortunately was holding a fireball at the time and the spell pulled her body directly onto the flame, causing a small blast of fire as the Veela was knocked out of the competition.

Spinning to the side again Harry dodged another series of fireballs before throwing his staff into the air causing another distraction as he drew his wand and fired a jet of water at the next Veela, soaking her to the skin and causing her to be grounded.

Realising her predicament the Veela ran at Harry talons extended before leaping to tackle him to the ground.

As the Veela reached Harry, his staff dropped into his hand.

He spun it around in an ark causing it to hit the jumping Veela square in the stomach, sending her to the ground, groaning in pain.

As he was turning to the last, Harry's arm exploded in pain as a fireball hit him, knocking his staff out of his hand.

He ducked and rolled as three more fireballs followed the first, aimed and fired at such a rate that he did not have a chance to summon his staff or his wand which he had dropped to catch his staff back to him.

Now was the time for his training with Adam, now was the time to reveal what he was really capable of.

As the next fireball came hurtling at him he brought his fingers tight together before spinning around and creating a fanning motion with his arms, firing a blast of air at the fireball, reversing its course.

The startled Veela barely had time to dodge as her own fireball came flying back at her much to the surprise of the crowd.

Using the astonishment of his opponent to his advantage he took a firm step forward and extended his fist towards the Veela, firing a blast of fire in her direction.

Unfortunately this time the Veela had learnt not to underestimate her opponent and easily dodged away before firing another fireball back.

Harry span to the side, seeing the Veela he had hit with his staff earlier regaining her feet. With a sharp twist of his feet the earth underneath the Veela temporarily liquefied and then re-hardened with the Veela's talons, lower legs and wing tips now encased within the earth.

Turning back to his other opponent, he played the same card he had used to defeat Colleen as he caught the Veela's fireball and hurled it back of her, catching her square in the chest and knocking the last Veela out of the competition.

He had won...just.

Not waiting for the confirmation of his win he ran over to one of the two Veela who had been hit with fire, kneeling down beside the nearest he extended his arm over the burns on her feathered chest.

The crowd watched astonished as a bubble of water appeared under his hand and expanded over the wounded skin.

They watched as Harry screwed up his eyes and concentrated as the water slowly sank into the skin, healing the burns, the only evidence of the wounds being the missing feathers.

Repeating the procedure with the other burnt Veela before he then turned to The Matriarch and the crowd.

Much to his surprise, no sooner had he turned to face the Veela when The Matriarch moved forward in front of him and dropped to her knees, quickly followed by the rest of the colony.

"We are yours...Avatar."

As soon as the words left her lips that he felt his shape begin to change, his head pointed and raised.

His neck lengthened and expanded.

His arms and feet changed shape.

He overbalanced and dropped forward on to his clawed hands, his head still well above the crowd, his whiskers trailing towards the ground in front of him.

CLAWS

WHISKERS!!


	57. CH57 The Avatar Awakes

Chapter 57 – The Avatar Awakes

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:1__st__ September 2001 AD_

_Country:Romania – Carpathian Mountains _

_Location:The Veela Colony_

_Time:Afternoon_

CLAWS

WHISKERS!!

_What the...What's going on..._

He tried to stand but toppled forward as soon as his hands were no longer supporting his now heavy front half.

Panicked Harry tired to back up using all his limbs but ended up tripping over his enormous tail, sending him into the nearest building, collapsing the entire near side wall.

"Remain calm Harry." Called Adam as both he and The Matriarch approached him as he thrashed around on the ground trying to regain his feet, causing more damage to the building.

"It's alright My Lord;" called The Matriarch "Everything is fine."

"Fine!" he shouted, the voice emerging from his long toothed mouth deeper and rougher than it should have "I've got claws!! I've got whiskers!! I've got a bloody tail!!!"

"It's alright Harry," said Adam, kneeling down next to the panicking Boy-Who-Lived "Remaining calm and we will explain, just remain calm."

Fawkes added his call to Adam and The Matriarch's calming talk.

Harry managed to get himself under control and stopped thrashing around though he was still rather panicked.

"Good Harry." Said Adam "Ok slowly, roll onto your stomach."

Harry did, hearing several bits of wood splinter as his tail once again damaged the building behind him.

"Don't worry Harry, stay focused on me, it's not serious damage, nothing a simple repairing charm wont fix. Now stand up slowly and remember you need to use all four legs."

Harry slowly pulled himself to his feet the same way he would if he was a stag, the movement was very awkward as what ever he had transformed into was not designed the same way as a stag.

"Well done Harry, now slowly turn your head to look back along your body."

Harry turned his head and long neck to the left until it was facing back along his body, something no human neck should be able to do.

For the first time he could actually see what he looked like, he was like no creature he had ever seen, he had a long slim body and a massively long tail, he was covered in blue fur on top with a lighter blue on his underside, at least thirty feet long including his head and neck, though at least half of that length was tail.

His front feet were like large clawed and fur covered hands with what looked like a series of hardened plates on his arm and the back of his hand, presumably some form of natural armour, his back feet were made up of four toes which looked very cat like.

Along his long back bone was a ridge of darker blue fur like the mane of a horse that lead all the way up his neck to his head and right to the end of his spine were it met the massive fluffy tip of his tail which had to be even bigger than his head.

He turned back to Adam who was standing in front of him yet Adam's head was at least a foot below his, what ever he was could extend its neck above the height of a man, he briefly experimented by lowering his neck so that his head was almost against the ground and then extending it to twice the height of a man before returning to the comfortable position seven foot above the ground.

"Ok Harry, now come over here." Said Adam, gesturing him towards a small pond in the centre of the colony.

Harry carefully walked over to the pond, the Matriarch and the rest of the Veela walking along beside him, looks of fascination and awe on their faces.

Looking down into the pond Harry saw his face; long and pointed, a large mouthful of sharp teeth, two meter long whiskers and two bright sapphire eyes.

The only way he could think of to describe his appearance would be that of a Chinese or Asian Dragon, the sort you would see in anime cartoons, his appearance reminded him of a dragon he had seen in the film 'Spirited Away'.

"Why do I look like this?" he asked "How do I change back?"

"You change back the same way you reverse an Animagus transformation." Explained The Matriarch.

Harry nodded, closing his eyes he began to concentrate on his true form, he felt his bones begin to shrink, his muscles begin to shift and his tail begin to disappear.

As he resumed his usual form his clothes returned and he slumped to the floor.

"Well done Harry." Smiled Adam as he pulled him to him feet.

"Let us go into my hall and talk." Said The Matriarch, leading the way through the crowd towards said building.

As they walked inside The Matriarch indicated for Harry to sit in the throne.

"Please My Lord, take my seat."

"What."

"My throne My Lord, please, use it."

"I err...I think I will just use a normal seat thanks." He said uncertainly as Harry conjured them up some chairs.

Much to Harry's surprise The Matriarch seated herself in one of the conjured seats rather than her throne, Harry uncertainly seated himself in the last seated before looking to Adam.

"What on earth just happened?" demanded Harry "What on Earth did I turn into?"

"You assumed the original form of the Avatar." Explained The Matriarch.

"And what is The Avatar?"

"Do you remember what I told you about Elementals shortly after we left the Delacour's?" asked Adam.

* * *

FLASH BACK

"As you know Harry there are four elements; air, water, earth and fire and beings who can control one or more elements are called Elementals. The power to control each element is given to a being by the planet."

"But the planets not alive?"

"Not in the way that you perceive life, any world that has magic is what is known as a living world, meaning that the planet has a life of sorts. It's a bit like Hogwarts in a way; the castle is alive, the stairs change, the armour moves, rooms shift but it can't actually think, the best way to think of it is as a survival instinct, the castle shifts to show people that it can defend itself and to remind everyone that it is alive, at least to a certain extent. The world does the same thing except it uses volcanoes, tornados, storms, tsunami etcetera; elementals are a living extension of that."

"How do you mean?" asked Harry.

"The planet effectively creates itself a guard, it selects beings, sometimes an entire species like Veela, at other times it can be the children of previous Elementals, sometimes they can be special and sometimes completely ordinary, anyone the world believes could potentially, and potentially is the key word here, anyone that could potentially help defend the planet."

"Why is the word potentially so important?"

"Well for example...Hitler could 'potentially' have been a very good Elemental."

"What, why him?"

"He was powerful, he had influence and he was in a position to 'potentially' do a great deal of good."

"Oh, I see." Nodded Harry.

END FLASH BACK

* * *

"Of course."

"Well the Avatar is the ultimate guardian Elemental; he commands the Elementals and all Elemental Beings and Beasts, his or her job is to protect the planet to the best of his or her ability."

Harry groaned.

"If you are about to say that I am the worlds Messiah I will curse you into next week."

"Ok," Nodded Adam "I won't tell you."

Harry groaned again and lowered hi s head.

"Go on."

"The Avatar is able to control all four elements and is declared as the Avatar by an Elemental species," explained The Matriarch "Once he or she has passed a test and has shown one of the two skills that only the Avatar can perform he or she is declared as The Avatar and assumed the form you did."

Harry turned his gaze on Adam and glared at him.

"You...You planned this, you trained me to be this."

"I did not," replied Adam calmly "I told you I would train you to become all it is within you to become and I have done that, I did not train you to become the Avatar as I can not do that."

"One of the skills of the Avatar is the ability to pull water out of the air which not even water Elementals can do but which you did earlier," explained The Matriarch "Thusly I declared you the Avatar."

"I did not train you to do that Harry," added Adam "You learnt that yourself."

Harry reluctantly agreed, he had never been taught that, it just occurred to him to pull the moisture out of the air.

"Ok, now what exactly was that creature I became?"

"It is what is known as a Spirit Dragon."

"And what is a Spirit Dragon?" asked Harry.

"It's an extinct ancestor of modern dragons and was the first intelligent species to evolve on this planet which is the reason that the first Avatar was a dragon."

"I thought humans were?"

The Matriarch coughed back a laugh.

"My apologies My Lord, please follow me and I will give you proof that humans were not." she smiled standing up and gesturing them out of the tent "Humans were the first Non-Magical intelligent life on this planet but in the Magical world they came late to intelligence,"

The Matriarch led them into a cave in the wall of the valley "Veela and Goblins for instance were intelligent long before humans were." they headed down through around one hundred meters of torch lit passages until the walls opened up into a vast cavern.

Harry's chin almost hit the floor in shock, the cavern was vast, at least five hundred meters in diameter and at least half that in height, the floor of the cavern slopped down at least twenty meters before it met the vast ruins of a city, remains of buildings that seemed to have been carved straight into the natural stone, towards the centre of the cavern the structures grew taller until the central building which must have been over one hundred in height was capped with what looked like a bell tower.

"Welcomed to the Old City of the Veela." Greeted The Matriarch "Long ago all Veela lived in hidden cities like this, but as humans, or more accurately wizards became more numerous our kind were slowly hunted down out of fear of our Elemental powers, as our numbers diminished we were forced to move to the surface as we could no longer maintain our great cities and so they fell into decay."

They stood there for several minutes admiring the once great city before slowly returning to the surface, as they again seated themselves in the hall Adam continued his explanation.

"Spirit Dragons, as you saw were about thirty feet long, almost half of which is tail and they look, as you probably noticed like eastern dragon. They were wingless and appeared defenceless but despite appearances they were very dangerous because of their intelligence level. They could fly without wings, just by shear power of magic and can summon up the elements."

"So the Avatar's first form was a dragon because..."

"Because Spirit Dragons were the first species that did not gain control over an element by genetics evolution like Veela, they were the first species that were chosen to be given the power of elements, you should now be able to assume that form as easily as you can that of your normal Animagus form."

Harry nodded, trying to take everything in.

"Unfortunately as another branch of dragons evolved into the dragons that are around today, people started to fear them, as they did later with the Veela they hunted them down and exterminated them, unfortunately the Spirit Dragons were always limited in numbers because of the size of their territories and that along with competition from their modern cousins wiped them out. Thus ended the days of the Spirit Dragons, from then on other species took over the roll of the Avatar."

"What was the other skill that only the Avatar can use?"

"The ability to control lightning." Replied Adam.

"Lightning?" asked Harry, shocked.

"Yes," confirmed The Matriarch "It is the combination of all four elements, lightning passes between air and earth, it's conducted by and accompanied by water, and has the same destructive effect as fire, but it is very difficult to achieve, I am sure Adam can give you some instruction regarding the technique at a later date."

"Is there anything else I need to know?"

"A few of things," replied Adam "Firstly there can only be one Avatar at a time, if there is another Elemental who can control all four elements he will not be an Avatar, just a very powerful Elemental. Secondly it has been over seven hundred years since the last Avatar was around in the world and many Elementals and Elemental species may be resistant to your leadership and the Wizarding world is likely to be even less fond of you. Thirdly the Avatar is like the Slayer in the respect that it is a planetary guardian and you may therefore receive some prophetic dreams."

"What about you?"

"'The Guardian' is a protector of all, not just one world, but I also receive prophetic messages but not in the same form as you." explained Adam "We are both protectors though and therefore have the same mission. Lastly I have a suggestion that you are not likely to want to follow;"

"What?" asked Harry slowly.

"I recommend that you keep your identity as the Avatar a secret. I would suggest using the guise of the Avatar in combination with that of the 'Masked Saviour of the Grangers', that way you can stay hidden but also gain support and help fight Voldemort on two fronts."

"Why would I not like that?"

"I believe our ancient friend means keep your identity a secret from everyone." Elaborated The Matriarch "Only let the people who already know that you are trying to recruit an army know that you are both the Avatar and Harry Potter."

"You mean keep it secret from Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Luna, Neville and Buffy?" sighed Harry.

"Yes, I would suggest keeping it secret from them as well," nodded Adam "I can help you hide your dual identity by assuming your appearance while you are the Avatar and its safer for them if they don't know, I would further suggest that as you are bound to have to use your Elemental powers at least once while at Hogwarts, I recommend we tell people that you can control only three, that way when someone looks up who the Avatar is and discovers that he or she can control all four elements you will not be included in the list of suspects."

"I agreed," nodded Harry reluctantly "Though I am not happy about not telling Hermione, Ron, Buffy and the others."

"Understood, but for now we need to get back to Hogwarts?"

"Ok," nodded Harry, before turning to The Matriarch "Can you meet us at Chateau Delacour tonight."

"I can My Lord; shall I contact our Goblin allies as well?"

"Please." he smiled before turning to Fawkes, he wasn't even going to ask how she knew that they were allied with the Goblin's "Shall we?"

"Actually Harry, why don't we see how well a Spirit Dragon can fly."

* * *

AUTHORS NOTE: An image of the creature that Harry becomes can be seen on my yahoo group, I do not own the picture.  



	58. CH58 Strangers And Strange Behaviour

Chapter 58 – Strangers And Strange Behaviour

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:1__st__ September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Hogwarts Express_

_Time:Evening_

Draco Malfoy had had a terrible holiday.

It had started badly; his father had told him (once he had been broken out of Azkaban) that Draco was going to be taking The Dark Mark by the end of this school year, then when his father had come back from a mission with a huge gash through his eye (or what was left of it) he kept shouting something about a bird causing the injury.

Draco thought it was hilarious, the great and powerful Lucius Malfoy mortally scarred by a bird and what made it even better was that the injury didn't heal magically no matter what they tried, so his father now wore an eye patch at all times. What further worsened his father's mood was the fact that not only did he have only one eye, but also he couldn't leave the house because he would be arrested on sight, his name now meant nothing at the Ministry AND they had his wand.

To say his father's mood was sour would be an understatement; he had been storming around the mansion ever since he got back.

For once, Draco actually felt sorry for the House Elves who bore the brunt of his father's tantrums, in fact the only things in the mansion worse off than the House Elves were the vases and other china his mother decorated the house with, many of which were priceless antiques and heirlooms...or at least they were before his Father took out his rage on any piece of pottery he saw.

But the thing that made it all much worse was the fact that since he came back from school last year Draco had started another of his summer projects (During the holidays he always started a project of some sort or other, this years had been the hardest yet), the result of said project could not have been worse if he had tried.

His father never cared what he did as long as it didn't disturb him, destroy the mansion or any of his property; on the other hand his mother was always willing to help, despite her hard public image she was actually a lot more relaxed in private, she was just a world class actress; she knew how to be the perfect rich housewife and 'Lady of the Manor'.

Draco normally preferred to work alone, but if he wanted anything for his project, he would ask her before his father, they had always been closer.

While conducting his project, he had had time to think about what life as a Death Eater would be like; he knew if he joined, he would always be less important than his father, he had always been held back by him, Lucius always had to be number one.

It was at this point that Draco started wondering if he really wanted to be a Death Eater at all, he would be able to kill Mudblood's and Blood traitors, but he could get killed in the process, it would get him power, but never as much as he wanted, over the last year he had grown to despise his father and was now unsure about what to do.

If he followed his father, he would always be second best, if he ignored the Dark Lord he would certainly be killed, but what if he turned to the other side and opposed the Dark Lord? Then he would be hunted down and executed, the only way he could get help was to go to Dumbledore, which was NOT something he wanted to do.

He despised asking for help, it was weak and pathetic, but it might be his only chance for survival.

He was now on his way back to Hogwarts in a compartment by himself. Crabbe and Goyle were off somewhere, he didn't really care where, he had had enough of them trailing after him, the stupid pair of idiots put Pure-Bloods to shame.

Millicent and Pansy had (luckily for him) not shown up either. Like Crabbe and Goyle, Millicent was just muscle and could be shaken off, though she was more intelligent than they were, but Pansy would have been a problem, she was almost as clever as his mother except she had an evil streak about her which at Hogwarts was second only to his own.

The train finally stopped and he climbed out.

He stared at the ground, not even looking where he was going until he bumped into someone.

"Oh sorry," a female voice said. "Oh it's you. In that case, forget I said anything," the voice added as he lazily turned to the person in question.

It was the Weasel Girl. She looked like she was awaiting his retort, but he just stared at her. She looked different than usual, though he couldn't figure out why.

As he thought up an insult he wondered...Why?

Why bother?

Why should he insult her?

Feeling uneasy, Draco turned and left, not looking back.

Draco felt very worried. Why hadn't he insulted her? Why, he couldn't put his finger on it, he despised her and her family.

"Draco." An all too familiar voice called out.

Turning slowly he saw Pansy, Millicent, Crabbe and Goyle walking towards him.

_Oh Merlin_

He immediately put on his usual sneer.

Pansy looked her usual conniving self, taking up her role as leader of the pack in his absence.

"Where were you on the train?" she asked. "We couldn't find you and you weren't at the Prefects Meeting."

"You obviously didn't look hard enough then," he answered, returning to his usual slightly insulting tone, which told everyone else that they were not as good as him.

"Oh well, come on. Let's get a carriage or we'll have to share with a Mudblood."

The trip to the school was uneventful, Pansy kept rambling on about some holiday she had been on in Spain.

Soon they reached the school; Draco wasn't really concentrating as they went inside and seated themselves in the Great Hall. Pansy was once again rambling, but this time about whether there was anyone worthwhile to look out for among the first years.

Draco turned his attention to the Gryffindor table. There sat the golden duo sidekicks, Potter still hadn't been found, even the Death Eaters didn't know where he was, or so his father had shouted.

There had been lots of rumours flying around about Potter leaving his home, ranging from him being thrown out to torturing and then killing his family before destroying the house. Somehow Draco didn't believe this, the former was more likely but at the moment it was unimportant.

The Weasel and the Mudblood were sitting with that stupid Longbottom lump and the Weasel Girl.

When he looked at her, he felt something. What was it? She looked the same as ever, but then again, she didn't, it was strange.

She looked over.

_Don't let her see you staring. Look somewhere else. See who the new DADA teacher is._

_What the...That's odd._

There were seven spare seats.

Seven!

Who in Merlin's name were going to fill those chairs?

All the other professors were there, including Professor Snape who sent him what could only be described as a warning glance. He was a hard one to figure out; he was close friends with his father, or rather they were firmly on the same side, Slytherin's really don't have friends, just allies who want the same thing as you do and think you can help them get it. He was also a very high ranking and very trusted member of the Dark Lords inner circle, yet he was different. He had always kept an eye on Draco, but he could never figure out if it was because of his father or for some other reason.

He was surprised that Dumbledore hadn't found out about him yet. He may not like the old wizard, but even Draco knew that the Headmaster was no fool.

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:1__st__ September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – __Hogsmeade Station_

_Time:Evening_

As the group climbed down out of the train Fleur and Colleen turned to the group.

"Professor Dumbledore suggested we accompany the first years across the lake as this is the first time we have come to Hogwarts other than by carriage." explained Colette.

"I would much rather never go near it again." said Fleur slightly fearfully as she stared at the lake, memories of her previous visit renewing themselves in her mind.

"We will see you up at the school." Said Colette quickly taking her friends arm in reassurance before leading her to the lake side.

As soon as the pair were gone the group started heading towards the carriages.

"Oh thank Merlin." Sighed Neville as his Veela temptress walked away "I'm sure I'm not going to survive Professor Fontaine's classes."

"I liked her." Smiled Luna brightly, looking in the direction of the two departing Veela "I found her forwardness most refreshing."

"I have to admit that once she stopped teasing the boys and starting explaining her class she did seem a lot more likable." Agreed Hermione "Did you notice how Fleur didn't seem her usual annoying self?"

"I'm more worried about Harry," explained Ginny "We still don't..."

She never got the chance to finish as someone bumped into her.

"Oh sorry," she apologized before turning to come face to face with a very familiar Slytherin. "Oh it's you. In that case, forget I said it." Ginny sneered awaiting his comeback.

As Malfoy turned and saw Ginny he froze, not even looking at the others and then, much to their surprise, he just walked off.

"What was that about?" asked Ron.

"I have no idea." Replied Hermione "We can talk about it later, we must get a carriage quickly or there won't be any left with enough space for all of us."

* * *

A few minutes later they entered the great hall. At the end of Gryffindor Table they separated from Luna as she went to sit down at her house table, while they continued on down the length of their own and sat near the end so they could clearly see the teachers table.

Discussing quickly turned to their encounter with Malfoy.

"He didn't even sneer at us," said Ron. "But you know what the weird thing was?" Receiving a blank look from the others (save Hermione) he continued. "He didn't have Crabbe and Goyle with him."

"Oh yeah, I didn't notice at the time," Ginny said, looking over to Malfoy, who had been looking at her mere moments before. He snapped his eyes away before the others noticed. He was sitting with Crabbe and Goyle, but didn't seem to actually be there, as if he was lost in thought.

"He did it again."

"He did what?" Ron said snapping into protective big brother mode.

"When I turned, he was staring at me. He did the same outside before walking off. I don't think he even noticed you lot."

"We'll keep an eye on him," Hermione said before Ron could march over to Malfoy and introduce him to his fist.

"I wonder who is going to fill the seven spaces at the teachers table?" asked Neville, aiding Hermione in distracting Ron.

"Well Adam, Professors Delacour, Fontaine and Radcliffe for a start," added Hermione said him a thankful look at Neville "That leaves two, one has to be the DADA teacher."

"But what about the other?" asked Ginny.

"We will have to wait and find out," replied Hermione "Here come the first years."

The sorting proceeded as usual: the hat doing its usual weird song followed by the sorting, a perfect split of students, ten for each house.

Dumbledore stood.

"Welcome...Welcome to another year at Hogwarts."

A loud bang in the room drew everyone's attention and several wands from Professors and DA members, the small explosion flooded the area with smoke, obscuring the source of the noise.

There was a loud pop as the smoke began to clear, revealing a large phoenix and Harry Potter.

"Thank you...It's good to be back."


	59. CH59 Welcome Back Harry Potter

Chapter 59 – Welcome Back Harry Potter

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:1__st__ September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Great Hall_

_Time:Evening_

"Thank you...It's good to be back."

The hall was completely still for several seconds, no one quite sure what to say.

Harry smiled and began to count.

_Three...Two...One and... _

"You can't Apparate inside Hogwarts."

"It's good to see you to Hermione." Smiled Harry turning to his shocked friend briefly before looking back to the teachers table, awaiting Dumbledore's response, but first he had someone more important to contact.

_Fleur, can you here me?_

_Arry...I've missed you._

_Well, I'm back now, I will see you later. _

"Welcome back Harry." greeted Dumbledore, obviously slightly uncomfortable at not being in control of the situation

"Thank you Professor, I apologise for not being in uniform, I did not get the chance to change."

"Of course Harry, how has your summer bean?"

"Not bad, how was yours?"

"It could have been better, where have you been hiding all this time?"

"With friends, they..." Harry stopped and screwed up his forehead in annoyance.

"Harry?" asked Dumbledore.

"Professor, please ask our learned Potions Master to stop trying to access my mind."

All eyes turned to look at Snape who was staring intently at Harry.

"Severus?" asked Dumbledore turning to the Professor in question "Severus please..."

"Don't worry Professor, I'll do it myself." Smiled Harry, turning his eyes to look straight into those of his most hated teacher.

The students and teachers alike watched as Severus first grinned then opened his eyes wide in shock before shouting out in pain, writhing in his chair.

"Harry...Harry stop!" ordered Dumbledore "Harry you've made your point, stop!"

Professors McGonagall and Vector moved over to their colleague and tried to stop him thrashing around while turning to Harry.

"Potter stop!" order McGonagall.

Harry instantly lifted his head, his expression quite calm as Snape stopped shaking and began with a great deal of effort to straighten himself in his chair before sending what could only be described as a fearful look at Harry.

Harry smiled briefly before turning back to Dumbledore.

"I was within my rights, the law states that an Occlumens can use any necessary level of force to defend him or herself in their mind if someone is trying to read their mind without permission, the Professor attempted to enter my mind and I responded...I do apologise, I interrupted your speech." He said bowing slightly before turning towards Gryffindor table and taking a seat, as he did so Fawkes took flight and flew out of one of the hall windows.

The Headmaster and the rest of the hall were silent for several seconds, not quite sure how to react to the situation before Dumbledore continued, trying to ignore what had just happened.

"To those of you here for the first time; welcome, and for those of you returning, welcome back. As usual I have a few announcements to announce."

That managed to get a chuckle from a few students; Harry could tell Dumbledore was desperate to get back the halls attention as most eyes were still focused on him, the Headmaster would have to be desperate if he could not think of anything more amusing than that.

"The Forbidden Forest is as it is so named; Mr Filch has also asked me to remind everyone that the forbidden items list can be seen in his office or in any Weasley Wizard Wheezes Catalogue."

Ron and Ginny high five'd each other, much to the amusement of the rest of the hall.

"In addition we have several new Professors to introduce this year and several new classes for them to teach."

* * *

Buffy was nervously pacing up and down the hallway outside the Great Hall. 

Any minute now she would be called to take her place at the Head Table.

She had already made a mental note to punch Dumbledore for making her walk the entire length of the hall to get to the table instead of just standing up and bowing.

What made it worse is that Adam still had not turned up.

Her Slayer hearing picked up two pair of faint footsteps approaching before the voice followed.

"Ello."

Turning to the source of the voice she saw what could best be described as a pair of higher beings walking towards her, it was the only way to describe how stunning the pair looked.

They were both platinum/blonds with long silky hair that flowed down their backs; both had deep blue eyes and were dressed in light expensive furs.

"My name is Fleur and this is Colette, you must be Buffee."

By the accent Buffy guessed that they were obviously French.

"Yes, pleased to meet you." Smiled Buffy extending her hand to shake both of theirs, she was beginning to wish she had dressed a bit smarter now, she was only dressed in a pair of jeans and an albeit very nice silky red shirt, if they walked in together she would look so common.

The door cracked open and the skin crawling caretaker stuck his head out the door.

"They're ready for you." He snarled.

"Shall we?" asked Fleur as she and Colette moved to stand on either side of her.

* * *

Harry had to repress smiles at the look on Buffy's, Colette's and Fleur's faces as they walked down between the tables. 

Buffy was looking incredibly nervous as she walked in-between the two tall Veela, really not liking being stared at by the entire hall.

Colette was wearing her 'kill via heart attack' or lack of blood to the brain look, and by the faces of many of the male (and some of the female) students; it was working extremely well.

Lastly there was Fleur was walking tall and wearing her best 'Lady of Breading and Beauty' face making the rest of the students look on in awe at her angelic beauty.

All eyes were on the three as they walked the length of the hall, though only those around Harry heard and saw the hello's that both of the Veela sent Harry, much to the confusion of Hermione and Ron, they were sure that he had not talked to Professor Fontaine during her last visit.

As the three reached the head table they walked around to the seats next to Hagrid; Fleur and Colette seated themselves on one side of him while Buffy sat on the other.

"Allow me to introduce to you," beamed Dumbledore "Professor Summers, one of our new Muggle Defence instructors."

There was a large round of applause and several wolf whistles causing Buffy to blush.

"And, as I am sure some of you older students remember form their last visit, Professor's Fontaine and Delacour, former students of Beauxbatons and now our Alternative Magic and History of Magical Creatures Professors."

The round of applause this time was larger and there were even more wolf whistles.

"I will explain the new classes later, for now I would also like to introduce our Defence Against The Dark Arts Professors and yes I did say Professors..." announced Dumbledore, gesturing to the doors as they once again opened.

"Professors Remus Lupin and Auror Nympha..."

"Professor!!"

"I apologise, Auror Tonks."

The round of applause was the biggest yet, not just for the beautiful pink haired female Auror, but this time for the best DADA teacher that any of the third years and up had ever had, Harry idly wondered how many of the male students would start having the Wizarding equivalent of the cops and robbers fantasies now that they saw how good the cops looked.

"It appears that our two last Professors appear to have been held up so I..."

He was interrupted by a birds screech as a falcon divided in through one of the windows and flew between Tonks and Remus, making them jump in shock.

Transforming back in midair Adam landed softly in front of the head table earning gasps from the students.

Standing up he straightened his tie before addressing Dumbledore.

"I do apologise Headmaster, I got held up."

"Perfectly understandable Professor, you're right on time," Smiled Dumbledore, turning to the pupils "Allow me to introduce our other Muggle Defence Instructor, Professor, Professor...I'm sorry Professor my mind is not all it once was. Remind me of your name, if you will?" Dumbledore said, turning back to the dark haired man.

* * *

Draco was an expert liar; he could tell when people were lying and he knew that the Headmaster was. 

The old fool hadn't just forgotten, he didn't know the Professors name.

The man smiled "Professor Berio-Megiltura, but just call me Professor Berio. No one can ever pronounce the whole thing."

The entire population of the hall had looked at him when he transformed, none of them had known him to look at and they all looked equally surprised when he said his name. It seemed that no one expected someone with a double barrelled name and especially not one that strange.

"Exactly," smiled Dumbledore "Professor Berio and Summers will be holding a new club on Saturday afternoons between the hours of two and four o'clock called Muggle Defence. By that, we mean physical defence or defence with non-magical items."

A lot of eyes in the hall lit up at the description.

"I am well aware," he continued, glancing at the Slytherin table. "That many of you believe that it is a waste of time, but you can never tell what sort of situation you will end up in. To sign up, write your name on the notice in your common rooms, but remember, only fourth years and up..." There was a collective moan from a lot of the younger students, which made Dumbledore smile. "Will be able to join. They will also be assisting in Defence Against the Dark Arts classes during Professor Lupin's absences."

Professor Summers whipped her head round so fast her hair nearly knocked Hagrid out (or it would have if her head was in line with his head rather than his chest). She started speaking quickly to Professor Berio who had seated himself next to her and from what Draco could see she didn't look best pleased. How could she not have been told what she would be teaching?

"For those of you who do not know, Professor Lupin is a Werewolf."

Lupin flinched slightly and Professor Summers's eyes shot to him, before she continued whispered in Professor Berio's ear. A large portion of the hall had also gasped, mostly first and second years.

"But I assure you he is perfectly safe, as he takes Wolfsbane Potion and he leaves Hogwarts every full moon."

There was a collective sigh of relief from most of the students.

"Moving back to the subject of the new classes; as I said earlier Professor Delacour will be teaching History of Magical Creatures which will supplement our own History Of Magic classes, Professor Fontaine will be teaching Alternative Magic which will discuss other methods of using magic and other types of magic, in addition to these two and the Muggle Defence club we will be starting an official Duelling Class led by our new Duelling Master who unfortunately hasn't arrived yet, but I can inform you that he has been teaching at Beauxbatons all Summer that ever single one of his students passed with flying colours and I was informed by Professor Delacour that in the duelling competition held at Beauxbatons he defeated the first and second seeds as well as former Under Eighteens Duelling Champion and Triwizard Champion who is now one of our Professors in a three versus one match."

There were a great number of awe like mutterings, would it be possible for them to actually get a new teacher for anything defence related who actually new what he was doing.

"All the above classes will also have notification sheets in your Common Rooms for you to sign if you wish to attend the classes," smiled Dumbledore "I believe that is everything except,"

_Oh no, not that, please, anything but that _Draco pleaded inwardly.

"The Hogwarts song."

_Oh Merlin, not again. _

Professor Berio along with many of the old professors groaned.

Dumbledore turned around and pointed his wand to the wall behind the teachers' table, where the words appeared.

"Pick your tune and begin."

"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy, Warty, Hogwarts,

Teach us something, please,

Whether we be old and bald

Or young with scabby knees,

Our heads could do with filling

With some interesting stuff,

For now they're bare and full of air,

Dead flies and bits of fluff,

So teach us things worth knowing,

Bring back what we've forgot,

Just do your best, we'll do the rest,

And learn until our brains all rot."

* * *

Buffy had never heard anything like it; it was one of the most ridiculous things she had ever heard. 

Harry, Ron and Ron's sister were the last to finish with their funeral march. They were doing what Buffy discovered later was a tribute to Ron's older brothers. This earned laughs from everyone who knew what they were up to.

"I believe that is all. In that case, I just have three things to say: Toffee, twizlet, zang."

Berio chuckled and sent Dumbledore a smile that said, "You never change," which received a smile from the Headmaster.

* * *

Harry had been dreading this moment, as soon as the food appeared he was bombarded with questions. 

Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Neville had kept trying to get information out of him all the way through the introductions and speeches but now he could no longer dodge he just had to delay them until they were alone.

"Come on Harry, tell us where you were?"

"I promise I will tell you everything later, but right now it's too public, I get the feeling that the Headmaster will want to see me so I will meet you in the Common Room when I have finished, we will have to fill in Luna later."

They seemed to accept this and choose not to ask him anything else...YET.

The other helped him fend of questions for the remainder of the meal, though it was obvious they had lots of questions themselves.

As expected, at the end of the meal Professor McGonagall came by the table.

"Potter, Professor Dumbledore would like to see you in his office when you have finished."

"Yes Professor," he nodded, quickly finishing up his meal "See you later guys." Smiled Harry getting up and heading in the direction of the doors, Fleur sending him mental encouragement as he went.

* * *

As he walked down the corridor towards the Headmasters Office there was a pop in front of him. 

In less than a second he had his wand out and pointed at the very scared House Elf standing in front of him.

"Dobby is sorry Harry Potter Sir," he cried moving to bang his head against wall "Dobby will punish himself for..."

"Dobby stop!"

The House Elf froze about half a second before slamming his head into the wall.

"Dobby, you will not punish yourself for my paranoia, do you understand?"

"Yes Harry Potter Sir."

"Now Dobby, what can I do for you?"

"Dobby and Winky have been most worried about Harry Potter Sir, Dobby wanted to check that Harry Potter was safe."

"I'm fine Dobby." replied Harry smiling, before a though occurred to him "Actually Dobby, can you come to see me later, I need to speak to you in private."

"Certainly Harry Potter Sir." Smiled Dobby before vanishing with a pop.

Harry took another breath and walked towards the open stair case, a comic phrase running through his head as he went.

Dumbledore Vs Potter, round 2.

Ding ding...


	60. CH60 Dumbledore Vs Potter Round 2

Chapter 60 - Dumbledore Vs Potter Round 2

FLASHBACK

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:Unknown_

_Country:Unknown_

_Location:Unknown_

_Time:An Eternity In A Second_

As soon as the light vanished Harry opened his eyes. He was aware of utter darkness; no light could be seen at all.

"Adam?" he called "Adam where are you?"

"Over here." Came the reply as a single light appeared, revealing Adam seated at a small table with a chess board laid out on it.

Walking up to the table, Harry seated himself in the other chair, the white chess pieces lined up in front of him.

"Where are we?"

"Nowhere," replied Adam "This is a place between places; it will help me teach you the first lesson for dealing with people while I recover from the power drain."

"What is the first lesson?" asked Harry.

"How to play chess."

"Chess?" Harry said sceptically.

"Chess." replied Adam, waving his hand over one of Harry's pawns, making it change shape.

Looking closer Harry saw that it had become a miniature model of one Harry James Potter.

"Until this year Harry, you were here." He said putting his finger on top of the figure who tried to push the extremity away just as he would in real life "Albus, Fudge, Tom," he continued waving his hand over the board changing the queens into the shapes of Dumbledore and Voldemort, while the white King assumed the shape of Fudge "They all pushed you in the direction they wanted, but now you are no longer their pawn."

"So where am I now?" asked Harry.

"You are here." He continued waving his hand over the board making the pawn shift back to its original shape while one of the white rooks assumed his form "The rook is a deceptive piece, it is a lot more dangerous than it looks, it is able to slip in among the enemy lines and get out before your opponent has time to react."

"What about you?"

"My brother and I are knights," he continued as the pieces assumed their shapes "We can do things that no one else on the entire board can, we can bypass the other players as though they were not even there and we can get away from trouble even easier than you can."

"Why are Dumbledore and Voldemort queens not kings?"

"Because kings are useless, they are even more deceptive than the rook, they have the appearance of being the most important piece on the board, they command the board but have absolutely no power themselves despite what they believe, which is why Fudge is a king, Tom and Albus are queens because they are more powerful than every other piece on the board, my brother and I not included, they really command the board as well as being immensely powerful themselves. When you return to Hogwarts you need to declare to Albus that you are not his pawn any longer, but you must not reveal your new position on the board, if you can do that you will prove to him and the world that you need to be taken seriously from now on."

END FLASHBACK

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:1__st__ September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Dumbledore's Office_

_Time:Evening_

Walking up the steps he sent out a quick mental message to Fleur before knocking and entering, not waiting for a response.

Dumbledore was sitting in his chair while McGonagall and Snape stood opposite him, as Harry entered they moved to flank the Headmaster. Dumbledore was wearing a look of confidence, obviously determined to keep control of the situation this time and to get the information he wanted.

McGonagall had a pensive look about her; unsure what to make of her student, on the headmasters other side stood a cautious Snape. It was a look Harry had never seen him wear before and it was obvious that his little trip into Harry's mind had unsettled the Potions Master.

"Ah Harry, thank you for coming, please, take a seat."

_Ah, so that's how he is going to play it, is it, the friendly Grandfather routine. Alright then, let see how long he can stay in control of this situation._

"Thank you Headmaster." Smiled Harry, walking forward and taking the chair on this side of the desk. "How can I help you?"

"Don't play innocent Potter." Snape sneered.

"Severus," Dumbledore chastised quietly before turning back to Harry. "Now Harry, I need to know how you appeared in the Great Hall."

"I Apparated, Professor." Replied Harry calmly.

"Harry please," asked Dumbledore "You can not Apparate into Hogwarts; I need to know if there is a breach in the wards. How did you get into the Great Hall?"

"I Apparated Professor." Harry repeated.

"Don't be smart Potter." sneered the Potions Master again.

"Sir." Added Harry.

Snape huffed.

"Well at least you are finally learning some manners."

"No Professor, I meant you should call me Sir." Harry smiled.

The silence that followed the statement was deafening, and if the silence wasn't, the next word most certainly was.

"WHAT!!!" roared Snape "You arrogant, little..."

"Severus." Chastised McGonagall before turning to Harry "Potter, this is not the time for games."

"I was not joking Professor," returned Harry calmly "Hogwarts Book Of Rules, chapter five, section three; 'Any student, professor, inhabitant of the school or guest has the right to be called by his or her title or titles if he or she has them.'"

"I told you not to be smart Potter," fumed Snape "You don't have any titles, so pray tell, why I should address you as 'Sir'."

"Severus." Warned Dumbledore, obviously having realised what Harry was basing his claim upon.

"It's alright Professor, I can back up my claim." He smiled, reaching into his jacket and withdrawing three scrolls, which he placed on the desk "This is proof of my THREE titles and the land that comes with them."

Snape immediately grabbed the nearest scroll and tore it open; luckily the protection charms built into magical contracts prevented it from being damaged. Dumbledore and McGonagall more calmly took the other two scrolls and began to read; judging by the look on Dumbledore's face, he had not known of Harry's rights to three titles.

By some stroke of luck, Snape had picked up the proof of Harry's grandest title and the lands coming along with it, which made him turn the most wonderful shade of red.

Snape was almost smoking as he very slowly read.

"Vis...count...Gryffindor."

"That's correct." Nodded Harry.

"As well as Sir Evans," read Dumbledore stiffly, trying to look comfortable and not out of control "And Thane Potter if I had to guess." he said glancing at the third scroll in McGonagall's hands "Congratulations Harry."

"Headmaster, I must ask you to address me as either Sir or My Lord."

Harry was sure he had seen Dumbledore twitch and had to resist the urge to grin.

"As you wish...My Lord." Dumbledore replied slowly. "Now, let us get back to what we were talking about before."

"Certainly Professor." Nodded Harry.

"Po...My Lord, how did you learn to Apparate?" asked McGonagall, obviously not overly comfortably with addressing someone a fraction of her age as Lord.

"It's alright Professor," smiled Harry "You don't have to call me by my titles, and in answer to your question I was taught during the summer."

"Harry," continued Dumbledore "You are aware of the underage laws regarding Apparation, are you not? You do know that you are technically breaking the law?"

"Professor," replied Harry "I only gave my Head of House permission not to call me by my titles and for your information I am not breaking the law."

Harry could tell Dumbledore was extremely aggravated; he hated not being in control, and what control he had he was rapidly going to lose.

"Ha...My Lord..." began Dumbledore stiffly "You need to be an adult and be licensed to Apparate, and unfortunately, you are neither."

"On the contrary Professor, I am both," Harry contradicted, reaching into the leather jacket he was wearing and withdrew a scroll and a small card "Here are my Apparation licence and my Emancipation papers."

McGonagall inspected the documents while Harry and Dumbledore smiled at each other, their eyes locked together, staring each other down.

Harry could feel Dumbledore probing around the edges of his defences; the touches were so gentle that it was very difficult to feel them. However, thanks to Viktor and Adam, he was prepared for almost anything.

He could also feel Snape trying his luck again; e wasn't as subtle as Dumbledore was.

"Professor Snape, do I need to remind you of what happened last time you tried to access my mind."

"I was surprised last time Potter, need I remind you that I taught you Occlumency, I know how unskilled you are."

"You may have started giving me what I will be very lenient and call tutelage in Occlumency, but you did not finish my training and need I remind you of the laws regarding Legilimency Professor."

Snape instantly stopped probing his defences, realising that Harry had indeed been doing research, for Snape had never told him about the Occlumens Code. Dumbledore on the other hand did not stop, obviously thinking that Harry had not detected him and unless Dumbledore went for a full assault, which Harry doubted he would.

Harry would let him continue to think that, for the time being he was not skilled enough to detect the elderly Headmasters probing.

"Congratulations Potter." Said McGonagall, as she handed his licence and papers back to him, though the expression on her face showed she was rather shocked by the whole thing.

"Thank you Professor." Harry smiled back.

"Ha...My Lord," continued Dumbledore "You still have not told us where you were staying all summer."

"No I haven't Professor," he was interrupted by a timely knock on the door "But I will tell you momentarily."

"Come in." Called Dumbledore, regaining his composure.

The door opened to reveal Buffy, Adam, Fleur, Colette, Tonks and Remus.

"You wanted to see us Headmaster?" Asked Remus before turning to Harry "Hello Harry, it's good to see you."

"You too Professor."

"Hey Harry."

"Wotcher Harry."

"Hi Buffy...I mean Professor Summers. Professor Tonks."

"Don't worry about it Harry," smiled Buffy "It's even harder for me to get used to."

"Are you going to tell us where you were staying Po...My Lord...or not." Demanded Snape.

Harry smiled before turning to Fleur.

"Shall we tell them my dear?"

"I think so Arry." Smiled Fleur as she walked towards him, allowing him to pull her flush against him, and when they were close enough she gave him a deep passionate kiss.

When the pair separated, about ten seconds later, they observed the various expressions on the faces around them.

Colette and Tonks, like them were smiling at the scene.

Adam was wearing his usual half smile, Harry wondered if he ever used full expressions.

Buffy was looking slightly surprised but not overly so.

Remus had presumably moved on from shock and his Marauder side was now showing through as an amused half smile spread across his face.

McGonagall was looking pleasantly surprised at the situation though still rather shocked by the scene.

Snape looked positively outraged that anyone would dare do THAT in his presence and lastly, Dumbledore was trying his best to look pleased and amused, though his shock was evident.

"Can I assume from your...familiarity," said Dumbledore "That you have been staying with Professor Delacour this summer?"

"At the Chateau Delacour." replied Fleur.

"Can I also assume that you are responsible for his disappearance?" Dumbledore asked Fleur, his twinkling eyes, boring into hers. The couple was lucky that Occlumency could be used down the link.

"Only from the day after the last time I saw you," replied Fleur, she could not simply say 'since the Order meeting' as Buffy was not aware of its existence "When you refused to act I was forced to go personally and save him."

"You took him away from the safety of the Blood Protections." Scolded Dumbledore.

"No," replied Fleur hotly "I saved him from the abuse of his family and the Wizarding Flu that would have killed him within days if we had not rescued him. If we had waited, according to your instruction, he would no longer be with us. And for your information, the Blood Protections were useless; I was able to enter completely without resistance. The Chateau has wards almost as old as those on this castle and almost as strong, it is hidden, less than twenty people know its exact location and less than fifty can get in without being let in."

Dumbledore was obviously not going to win so he changed subjects, subtly ignoring the fact that he had been proved wrong, the looks on the faces of some of the Order members in the room made this clear.

"Ha...My Lord...I must insist that this relationship ends, it is too dangerous for both yourself and Professor Delacour."

Tonks, Colette, Remus and Buffy turned their eyes on Dumbledore, he had just made another big mistake, how dare he try to force them apart.

"Let us be the judge of that, thank you." Returned Fleur firmly, doing her best not to react aggressively.

"Nonetheless, I can not allow a teacher to be seen having a relationship with a student, if you do not cease the relationship, I will have to insist that Professor Delacour leaves Hogwarts."

"What about two Professors having a relationship."

"You are not a professor." Replied Dumbledore.

"I beg to differ Headmaster." smiled Harry, drawing his wand and casting the spells on himself. The room watched as Harry began to change, Dumbledore's eyes widened as he realized that he had been deceived.

"Allow me to reintroduce myself;" he said bowing "Thane Harry James Potter, AKA Professor Daniel Radcliffe, former Defence Against Assault Professor and Flying Instructor of Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, winner of the Beauxbatons Duelling Competition and current Duelling Master of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at your service."

By now chins were beginning to drop all the way around the room.

"You signed your contract with a fictitious name," replied Dumbledore, regaining his composure "That renders it void."

"Again, I beg to differ Headmaster;" drawing another parchment from his jacket "This is a document legally giving me the second identity of Daniel Radcliffe."

"I still can not allow this relationship to threaten..."

"I think you have no choice, Headmaster," interrupted Harry "Hogwarts Book Of Rules, chapter five, section six states that 'If staff of Hogwarts are in relationships with other staff or students, there are no grounds for dismissal if the relationship existed prior to one or more of the parties coming to dwell within the school', this relationship started prior to either of us signing your contracts and if you think you can find another reason for one of us to leave, Hogwarts Book Of Rules, chapter five, section seven, 'A member of staff can not be dismissed unless they are proved to be an incompetent teacher, not qualified enough or a danger to the school or those who dwell within."

"You are not qualified, you have no..."

"Here are my qualifications Headmaster, two double EAGLES in DAA and Flying from Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, awarded by the French Ministry Of Magic."

Harry could almost hear the minds of all those around him ticking over, trying to think what on earth to say as dozens of questions appeared in their minds.

"If that is all Professors, I have some friends to get re-acquainted with and some explanations to give."

With that Harry bowed and headed out the door leaving many stunned and grinning members of staff.

Potter, two.

Dumbledore, nil.


	61. CH61 Friends Reunited

Chapter 61 - Friends Reunited

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:1__st__ September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Dumbledore's Office_

_Time:Evening_

Fleur grinned as Harry walked out of the office victoriously.

Turning back to the Headmaster, she and the rest of the new Professor's waited for him to speak.

"I will come back to the subject of Mr Potter later; right now I wish to welcome you all to the Hogwarts Staff or in one case welcome back."

Remus gave him a nod, though it was evident that the Werewolf was not overly pleased by the Headmasters attempt to separate Harry from someone he obviously cared for.

"As you are of course aware we are currently at war with Voldemort which is one of the reasons why I took you all on and started your classes, your lessons are all either designed to strengthen bonds with other wizards or Magical creatures or are designed to aid in self defence, both will be needed in the coming war and I want my students to be able to count on each other and be able to protect themselves."

"If they aren't able to defend themselves after being taught by three very good duellists, one of whom was a Duelling and Triwizard Champion, a level two Auror, a Duelling Master, a Muggle Defence expert and a Holy Knight they never will." Replied Adam.

"Quite." Agreed Remus, turning to Dumbledore "If anyone can teach them it is us."

"That is my hope." Smiled Dumbledore "Now can I request that Professors Delacour and Fontaine leave us please, I need to talk to the rest of you."

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:1__st__ September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Gryffindor Common Room_

_Time:Evening_

Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Neville were impatiently awaiting Harry's arrival in the Common Room; Hermione and Ginny were pacing quickly while Ron and Neville fidgeted in two of the arm chairs, the rest of the room was deserted, everyone else having gone to bed after a bit of nudging from Prefects Hermione and Ron.

When the portal swung open and Harry stepped through he was immediately bombarded by questions.

"How did you do it?"

"Where have you been?"

"What happened?"

"Where have all these muscles come from?"

"You can't Apparate inside of Hogwarts."

"STOP." He called loudly, making them all jump "Let us sit down then I will answer your questions one at a time."

Harry moved over to one of the arm chairs and settled in.

"Ok, one at a time."

"You can't Apparate through the wards." Began Hermione.

"No you can't." agreed Harry.

"So how did you do it?" asked Neville.

"I didn't," he replied "I Apparated from just inside the grounds which you can do as you don't pass through the wards, Adam masked my magical signature as we passed through the wards, I then appeared into the hall and Fawkes created the effects."

"Ok, what happened with Dumbledore?" said Ginny, being the only one to actually know where he was and who he was with she didn't ask about this summer.

"I told him in no uncertain terms that I was not going to be blindly following him from now on and I scared Snape away from trying to access my mind again."

"What did you do to him in the Great Hall?" asked Ron.

"I let him enter my mind and then shut him inside my memories of Voldemort." Neville and Ron tried their hardest not to flinch.

"Where did you learn such advanced Occlumency?" asked Neville.

"I was taught this summer."

"Where have you been all summer?" asked Hermione.

"I've been staying with April."

"And who is April?" asked Hermione, wanting him to get to the point and stop beating around the bush.

At that moment the portal swung open and a pair of blond Veela stepped through.

Harry smiled before getting up and walking over to Fleur and kissing her deeply.

_How is it going Arry?_

_Ok so far, but we will have to see how they react to this._

Slowly separating, Harry kept an arm around Fleur's waist while turning to his friends.

Ginny unsurprisingly was not looking shocked, in fact she was not looking at them at all.

Neville and Hermione were sitting stunned, their mouths hanging slightly open.

Ron was Harry's biggest worry, he could see him clenching his fists and gritting his teeth behind his lips, but much to Harry's surprise he was the first to speak.

"Congratulations Harry." He said stiffly causing all heads to turn to him in astonishment.

"Thanks Ron." Replied Harry earning a slightly stiff nod from Ron, who a little too calmly stood and walked up the stairs to their dormitory to a slightly hurt look from Hermione.

"You've been staying with Fl...Professor Delacour." Asked Hermione, blinking away the tears that threatened.

"Ever since she rescued me from the Dursley's."

"What did the Dursley's do this time?" asked Hermione.

"They beat him and left him to die while he suffered from Wizarding Flu."

"What!!" exclaimed Neville, while Hermione gasped and went very pale.

"He would have been dead within days if we hadn't gone and rescued him."

"Oh God Harry," cried Hermione, going over to him and pulling him into a tight hug "You've got to stop getting into life threatening situation."

"I assure you Hermione, I don't do it on purpose."

As Hermione disengaged she then, much to the surprise of the rest of the room, moved to Fleur and hugged her.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you...for saving his life."

"Err...You are welcome Ermione." Said Fleur uncertainly, more surprised than anyone by the brunette's behaviour.

Hermione then seemed to realise what she had just done, jumping back she began t o stutter while blushing furiously.

"I...er...I'm sorry Professor, I..."

"Don't worry Ermione, I completely understand, and remember you can call me Fleur when we are not in class."

"Yes Pro...Fleur."

"Shall we sit down?" Smiled Colette, guiding an embarrassed Hermione back to the sofa while Harry returned to his chair, Fleur seating herself comfortably in his lap.

"Right, where were we?"

"How long have you been together?" asked Neville.

"Real time or actual time?" asked Colette.

"Real ti..." began Hermione before she caught on "You've been using a time turner haven't you."

"To train yes, we have been doing seven or eight repeats of every day."

"Seven or eight that's...that's...Holy cricket."

Harry smiled widely.

"I haven't heard you say that since the day we met on the train."

"Over two hundred and fifty days, no wonder you look so comfortable together."

"Holy Merlin!" Exclaimed Neville.

"Ron, don't swear." Hermione chastised, before realising her mistake, shaking her head and turning to Neville "Sorry Neville, it was an automatic reaction, though you still shouldn't swear."

"What were you training at all that time?" asked Ginny.

"Duelling, Occlumency, a few languages and hand to hand fighting, among other things."

"What languages?" asked Hermione.

"French, German and a little Bulgarian."

"Really?" she asked surprised before switching, much to everyone's astonishment, to French "How well do you know the language?"

Harry's eyes widen slightly before replying in the same language.

"Let me just say that I spoke barely any English after I learnt the language and that can't have been more than two real weeks after we started time jumping."

"How did you get a Time Turner anyway?"

"My father is a member of the French Council of Power," explained Fleur, smiling "There are not many things that he can not get a hold of."

"How did you manage to do that many repeats per day?" continued Hermione.

"The Chateau is large enough to allow us to work and sleep in different rooms everyday," replied Fleur "It almost became more difficult when Arry was too much of a gentleman and tried to prevent us from sleeping in the same bed."

Hermione, Neville and Harry blushed at the comment, while Ginny tried her best not to cry. Colette was the only one to observe her reaction.

"Moving on," coughed Harry turning back to the group "Next question?"

He waited for someone to say something, but all they gave him was perplexed looks.

"What?"

"Antlers," grinned Colette "They can't understand you."

"What," he asked before realising and switching back to English "Sorry, I've got so used to speaking French it's become automatic, I forgot that not everyone speaks the language, next question?"

"Is there anything else we need to know?" asked Neville, his tone made it sound like he could not take many more of his surprises.

"Just four things that I can think of, I am your new Duelling Master, I have been teaching duelling at Beauxbatons all summer and Fleur and I are going to be together for most of the time."

There was utter silence for several seconds before Neville asked.

"You're Professor Radcliffe?"

"Yes."

"And Dumbledore knows of this?"

"He does now."

"And he's still going to let you teach?"

"He hasn't got any choice; Daniel Radcliffe is a legal second identity, as verified by the French Ministry of Magic and he can't legally fire me."

"Holy Merlin," exclaimed Hermione as she worked out the last bit of Harry's statement "You're mated aren't you?"

* * *

Ginny deflated when Harry and phlegm nodded their response. 

Mated.

MATED

How was she supposed to get him away from her now, she didn't know if her plan would even work now that they were mated.

She prayed it would, she would not lose him now.

* * *

"Mated?" asked Neville. 

"Mating joins them together," explained Hermione "They're souls are bound together, as is their magic. They can't be apart for too long and they can hear each others thoughts, feel what the other is feeling and even access each others memories...it's the strongest type of magical bond possible, it's their greatest strength and greatest weakness."

Harry turned to Fleur and Colette, smiling.

"I told you she was good."

"You did." Smiled Fleur "But you have yet to show them your fourth point."

"Oh yes," smiled Harry "Everyone close your eyes, you too Colette, you have not seen this yet."

Hermione gave him a quizzical look before following the others lead and closing her eyes.

Harry carefully lifted Fleur off him and put her back down in the seat after he had vacated it. He moved to the centre of the room and focused on the change.

He felt his limbs lengthen; his bones change shape, his organs rearrange and the massive increasing mass above his head.

Finishing the transformation he moved right in front of Hermione, less than a foot from her.

"You can look now." Called Fleur with a smirk as the others looked.

Harry didn't think he had ever seen Hermione move so fast as she jumped back in shock.

Neville, Ginny and Colette had much more controlled reactions at seeing a large stag standing proudly in front of them.

"Harry?" asked Hermione, still slightly shocked by the surprise she had just had. After all, it's not everyday you open your eyes and see a stag directly in front of you "Is, is that you?"

Harry nodded, careful not to hit Hermione with his antlers.

"You didn't tell me you had completed the transformation." Smiled Colette as she dropped down beside him and began to stroke him before finishing her statement with one of her usual innuendoes "And what a large buck you are two."

"Wow, Harry." Said Ginny, approaching him and feeling his coat "This is incredible."

"You mastered Animagus transformation in under a year." Exclaimed Hermione running her hands up his antlers. "This is wonderful Harry! Are you registered?"

"With the French Ministry." Replied Fleur.

Thinking they had seen enough for the time being he began to change back, the others moving away as he did.

Before he got a chance to say anything, Fleur walked over to him.

"Now go and talk to Ron while I have a talk with your friends."

Colette, taking the hint, quietly slipped out, while Harry gave Fleur a kiss.

"Go easy on them." Harry smiled jokingly as he climbed up the stairs towards the sixth year boy's dormitory, mentally thanking Fleur for putting herself on the spot in front of his friends.

As soon as Harry disappeared at the top of the staircase Fleur turned to Hermione and the others. However, before she could speak, Ginny got up and walked out of the portal, not giving anyone a chance to say anything.

"What's wrong with Ginny?" asked Neville.

"She doesn't want to hear what I have to say," explained Fleur before turning to the others "I'm sure you have questions?"

"Why did you rescue him after Dumbledore told the O...told you not to?" asked Hermione.

"Because I care for Arry and I was worried about him, even if he was just grieving it could not be healthy for him to be left with those orrid people."

"How did you convince Harry to mate with you?" continued Hermione.

This was the question that Fleur had been dreading, but she was not about to cower out now, she needed to be on good terms with Harry's friends or life would be very difficult for her mate.

"I didn't," she said shyly "I gave him int after int that I was interested in him and he gave me more than a few letting me know that he was also interested, but when he finally gave in and kissed me he acted as though I would remove his ability to reproduce for even daring to touch me and ran away. We were out for a meal at the time. I ran after him but I came across another man first, he wanted to...he tried to..." she attempted to speak, but her voice died in her throat as she tried to explain.

All those present seemed to realise what she meant as Hermione was shocked enough to actually move over next to Fleur and give her another hug, letting Fleur recover.

"Thank you Eermione." She said quietly before sitting up and drying her eyes with a short burst of Veela power, it was a useful aspect of her power.

As Hermione returned to her seat Fleur continued.

"He managed to bind my hands but Arry arrived and stopped him, suffering another beating in the process, we portkeyed back home and I decided to show Arry my feelings for him but when I tried he said no, saying it was too dangerous, saying that everyone he cared about got hurt and the he couldn't lose anyone else. I was desperate he was denying both of us our feelings for fear of my and my families safety, I had to prove to him, I had to show him how I felt, I...I mated with him without his consent." She said in shame.

"You...you..." gasped Hermione "You...raped him."

Fleur flinched at the word.

"Effectively...yes," she said ashamed, before raising her head, tears streaming down her face "I could think of no other way, I had to show him, I had to make him realise how much I felt for him and that I would not let him deny our feelings to try to protect me from a danger I was already very well aware of."

* * *

They sat in silence for several minutes, Hermione had wanted to be angry, she wanted to be furious at Fleur for what she had done to Harry, but seeing such an emotional response from her had stopped her anger dead in its tracks. 

"You really do care about him don't you?" said Neville.

Fleur nodded vigorously, wiping the tears from her face and restoring her image with another short blast of Veela power.

"I'm sorry," she said softly, regaining her composure though she was still rather upset "I'm not usually this emotional, I know what I did was wrong and I still feel guilty for what I did. But Harry forgave me when I told him what I had done and finally admitted his feelings for me. I know what I did was wrong, but in the end it was the right thing to do."

They sat in silence for several minutes before Hermione finally spoke.

"It was the right thing to do."

Fleur looked at her surprised, her eyes still watery from what she had just admitted to them.

"I'm sorry?"

"You did the right think Fleur," smiled Hermione "You forced him to admit his feelings, you have given him something to hold onto now that Sirius is dead and you are making him happier and more relaxed than I have ever seen him before."

Fleur looked at her surprised for several moments before pulling her into a tight hug.

"Thank you." She sighed "Thank you so much."

When they parted Hermione also had tears in her eyes.

"Take care of my friend." Added Neville, with a smile.

Fleur laughed lightly and gave him a peck on the cheek before settling back into her seat leaving a blushing Neville.

"Now, I'm sure you have more questions." Smiled Fleur.

"When did your accent get so good?" asked Hermione "It was... stronger...the last time we saw you."

"My accent has always been like this," grinned Fleur "I deliberately made my accent stronger and made myself sound more stuck up, proud and snooty so as to put people off me?"

"Why?" Neville asked.

"Veela are some of the most desired women in the world, I wanted to make sure that any man I ended up with wanted me for me, not just because I was beautiful and a Veela."

"Like Bill?" asked Hermione.

"Yes, Bill was one of the first men I new wanted me for me, Harry is another and in fact actually saw through my accent, though he did agree that it makes me sound sexy. The only problem is although I can speak English well, two of the words I can't speak properly are Arry and Eermione."

"It could be worse," laughed Hermione "At least you are not calling me Err-my-oh-knee."

Fleur laughed in response.

"Viktor's accent has actually got a lot better." She smiled "He helped train Arry in Occlumency for most of the summer."

"Really," asked Hermione surprised "I didn't know you had kept in touch."

"Oh yes, after Dumbledore's," she spat out his name "Speech about 'coming together' we kept in touch, he even went so far as to learn French so we could communicate easier."

After that the communication settled down, most of the talking was done by Fleur and Hermione who had realised that Fleur really wasn't as bad as she thought she was, for the most part Neville just sat and listened as the girls exchanged romantic tales, shared similar experiences and other varied subjects.

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:1__st__ September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Gryffindor Tower – Sixth Year Boys Dormitories_

_Time:Evening_

Harry made his way up to the dormitories and slowly opened the door.

All the candles in the room were out, the only light in the room came from the moonlight shinning into the room which showed the outline of Ron lying on his bed, his fingers interlaced and resting on his stomach, Dean and Seamus were presumably asleep in their beds.

"Ron." He said quietly, not wanting to wake the others.

There was no response for several seconds.

"You can be a right bastard at times Harry."

"I didn't get together with Fleur just to spite you, you know." He said walking over and squatting on the side of the bed that he would not be using this year "To be perfectly honest I tried to turn her down."

"Always knew you were an idiot."

Harry chuckled, he was still surprised Ron hadn't shouted at him or attacked him when he found out about him and Fleur.

"Possibly, but I can't really help that now."

"You've still got two years of school left, and with Hermione nagging us it will seem more like three."

Both laughed lightly before they settled back into serious talk.

"You always seem to get everything I want." Sighed Ron "I know you don't mean to but it's still bloody annoying."

"I don't have Hermione." Harry pointed out.

"She's too clever to like me."

Harry groaned.

"Ron, one day you and her will realise what the rest of the world knows and get together."

"I couldn't be that lucky."

Harry groaned again.

"I give up," he sighed before turning serious "So...are we good?"

"We're good." Replied Ron, a slight smile forming on his face "Now, get back to your Veela."

Harry smiled and headed back towards the door.

"Thanks Ron." He smiled leaving the red head to think.

Rolling onto his side, Ron looked through the window on the other side of the room at the crescent moon.

Hearing faint ,footsteps he guessed Hermione had entered the room.

"I would like to be alone...please."

"I understand Ron." Came the lightly accented Response,

"Professor!" He said in surprise, beginning to roll towards her.

"Stay there Ron," replied Fleur as he felt her perch on the edge of his bed "I just wanted to say thank you for not getting angry at Arry, he doesn't have enough good friends as it is, and even less that are male."

"I am angry at him." Ron replied, settling back into his position "I just realised over the summer how much I would regret it if I were to lose Harry's friendship, my life would quite frankly have been boring without him."

"Thank you Ron." Smiled Fleur, leaning down and giving him a kiss on the cheek earning a deep blush from Ron.

She paused as she went to get off the bed and leaned back down towards him.

"Ron, you remember when you asked me to the Ball two years ago?"

"I'm hardly likely to forget embarrassing myself like that in front of students from the three biggest magical schools in Europe."

"It was not that bad Ron," smiled Fleur "But there is something you may wish to know."

"What?"

"Only two people asked me to the ball and you were the first,"

"It was stupid of me to even try." He groaned.

"The thing you may want to know Ron is," she said, leaning down to whisper in his ear "If you had not disappeared so quickly...I would have said yes."

Ron's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates and he spun over, Fleur barely moving back in time to avoid being hit.

"You...you... you would have...have..." he stuttered, not even believing what he had heard.

"Said yes," she smiled "You were three years younger than me and the first one to have the courage to ask me, I did try to find you afterwards but I had no luck, after I tried to find you for several hours I learnt who you were but I was told by then you already had another date, so when Roger asked me...I said yes."

Ron sat stunned for a few seconds before finally managing one word.

"Bugger."

Fleur laughed lightly and stood up.

"Goodnight Ron." She smiled as she turned and headed back out the door.

* * *

As soon as the portal closed behind her Ginny leaned heavily against the wall, her eyes shining with tears in the dim light of the hall. 

"Are you alright?"

Ginny spun around to see Colette standing on the other side of the portal.

"I'm fine." She answered quickly, attempting to blink away her tears.

"You love him don't you?" Colette asked quietly moving up behind Ginny and laying a hand on her shoulder.

"I...I don't know." Replied Ginny, the tears beginning to fall down her cheeks "I know I did, but I though I was over him, but then he sent me that letter over the summer and I just didn't know anymore, I gave him a special birthday present but as soon as I got it I started to wonder if I should have, I kept going round in circles...I just don't know anymore."

She turned around and cried into the French Professors robes

"Don't worry Ginny," said Colette comfortingly "Everything will turn out alright...everything will be alright."


	62. CH62 The Birth Of The Alliance

Chapter 62 – The Birth Of The Alliance

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:1__st__ September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Staff Quarters_

_Time:Late Evening_

Harry and Fleur finally arrived at their joint rooms after what seemed like hours of chatting and questions from Harry's friends.

It had been really hard for Harry to act dumb when they started talking about the attack on Hermione's house and even harder for him to not tell Fleur and Colette (once she and Ginny had returned) about what he had been up to while the pair of them had been on the express, on their way to Hogwarts. He would have to tell them later when they met at the Chateau and just prayed they would not react the way the rest of the Veela Colony did.

As they entered, there was a pop as Dobby appeared in front of them.

Harry, having expected the visit, was not shocked but Fleur was surprised to actually see a House Elf appear in front of her. At the Chateau the House Elves always worked in the background, and one very rarely saw them unless they were bringing something.

"Dobby is here Professor Harry Potter Sir."

"Good evening Dobby, thanks for coming." He smiled before turning to his mate "Fleur this is Dobby, Dobby this is Fleur Delacour, my mate."

"Ello Dobby." Said Fleur uncertainly.

"Dobby is pleased to meet Professor Harry Potter's French Flower."

Fleur raised an eyebrow at the House Elf but did not get the chance to say anything as Harry continued.

"Dobby, how does Dumbledore know what goes on inside the castle?"

"Professor Dumbledore is told what happens inside Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry by House Elves, Professor Harry Potter Sir, and Professor Dumbledore feels the wards change when people cross them."

"Dobby, would it be possible for the House Elves to not tell Dumbledore about what I, Fleur, Colette, Hermione, Ron, Neville, Luna and Ginny do."

"Dobby will speak to other House Elves, Harry Potter Sir," Dobby said firmly. "Dobby will make House Elf Parliament tell other Hogwarts House Elves not tell Professor Dumbledore about Professor Harry Potter's, Professor Harry Potter's French Flower and Professor Harry Potter's Friends movements."

"House Elf Parliament?" asked Fleur.

"House Elf Parliament is gathering of all House Elves. House Elf Parliament decided long ago to serve Wizards for protection from Goblins." Dobby explained, looking fearful as he mentioned the Goblins.

"What happened between the House Elves and the Goblins?" asked Harry.

"Goblins and Dwarves is cousins of House Elves, Goblins didn't like House Elves not helping Goblins during First Goblin War, House Elves asked Wizards for protection from Goblins if House Elves agreed to serve Wizards."

Guessing where this conversation was going Fleur cast privacy wards around the room.

"If I could get the Ministry to agree to laws regarding quality of living and working conditions for House Elves after the war," asked Harry "Would the Parliament agree to side with me, the Veela, the Goblins and the Dwarves against Voldemort and his Death Eaters?"

"Arry, the Veela rejected you, remember?" said Fleur confused.

"The first time they did," grinned Harry "They didn't when I went to see them today."

"You got their support?" asked Fleur surprised "How?"

"I will tell you later." Harry smiled before turning back to the House Elf "Would they support us?"

"What would House Elves be doing Professor Harry Potter Sir?" asked Dobby.

"Espionage." Replied Harry "House Elves are in almost every Pure-Blood Home and therefore in those of the Death Eaters, if the House Elf Parliament orders them to, the House Elves will reveal what they find out even if their master's tell them otherwise."

"Dobby will speak to House Elf Parliament." replied Dobby "Dobby will have answer in an hour Professor Harry Potter Sir."

"Come to Chateau Delacour with your response, thanks Dobby."

"Goodbye Professor Harry Potter Sir." Smiled Dobby before vanishing.

As soon as Dobby left Fleur turned to Harry, her eyebrow still raised.

"Professor Arry Potter's French Flower?"

"Dobby likes to give people alternative names;" laughed Harry "He calls Ginny, littlest Wheezy."

Fleur chuckled lightly before the duo continued exploring their joint rooms.

The room's colours were a mixture of reds and golds which contrasted the dark ornate wood furniture and the stone of the walls. It was quite a change of scene from that of the Chateau, they used similar colours in parts of the grand house but it always managed to make the building look elegant and sophisticated whereas this room gave a sense of power, age and grandeur, very like the comparison between the Beauxbatons and Hogwarts castles.

The suite door opened onto a large sitting area filled with several armchairs and a pair of sofa's which were gathered around a large fireplace, there was a drinks cabinet in one corner of the room as well as several display cases spread around the walls ready for ornaments and other personnel artefacts. Off of this room were two doors, one led down a long corridor that split and eventually led to both of their offices and classrooms, the other led to their bedroom. A king size bed and a large window dominated the room which was decorated in the same colours as the main room with the same dark wood furniture. Connected to this room were a large walk in wardrobe (holding all Fleur's clothes as well as the things she had bought for Harry) a medium sized kitchen and a larger bathroom complete with hot tub.

"Why are we meeting at the Chateau?" asked Fleur as she moved over to where one of her trunks containing various paraphernalia and personnel bits and pieces.

"We are going to seal the deal so to speak, Adam and now the House Elves are going to cover our disappearance. We are meeting with the Goblins, Veela, our human allies and now hopefully the House Elves to organise our team."

"How did you manage to get the Veela to follow you?" she asked again, withdrawing several Wizarding photos of her family and friends.

"I will tell you at the Chateau," smiled Harry as he moved over to the window, opening to reveal a heavy fall of rain pounding the ground far below the window, it was proper soggy British rain rather than the normally summer fall of water you got elsewhere, a gust of wind blew a few rain drops at him, leaving him with a few wet patches on his jacket "Ah, it's good to be back."

* * *

An hour later Harry, Fleur, Colette and Tonks crept out of the castle grounds and once past the wards Apparated to the Chateau.

As they appeared in the training room, they had to take a couple of breaths because of the magical drain of Apparating such a distance.

Looking up they saw a circular table surrounded by people.

"Oh, very appropriate," grinned Tonks at the shape of the table.

Dimitri, Delphine, one Dwarf, Ragnok, The Matriarch, Madam Maxime, Bill, Viktor and most surprisingly of all:

"Mr Ollivander?"

"Mr Potter, it's a pleasure to see you again, especially so soon." Smiled the wand maker.

"What are you doing here?"

"I am here to help." He replied.

"How did you find out about this meeting?"

"I went to him regarding the supply of a large amount of magical cores." Explained Lord Ragnok "Some of our weapons and armour require magical cores to allow them to repel magical attacks. Although we have kept a supply of equipment since the last Goblin War repairs and replacements are needed. Mr Ollivander, how do you humans say it, oh yes, 'put two and two together' and worked out that we were working together as you had visited him yourself earlier the same day."

"From there I suggested that it would be easier to supply weapons ingredients covertly if I was on the inside." Explained the wand maker "In addition, it allows me to be your eyes and ears in Diagon Alley as well as providing me and my merchandise with some protection."

"It makes sense," nodded Tonks "Imagine what V...Voldemort would do if he got a hold of all the wands in that shop."

"Well then Mr Ollivander," smiled Harry "Welcome to the team."

The four moved towards the vacant seats, Harry and Fleur sitting beside the elder Delacour's, Tonks sitting next to Bill and Colette, after a short bow, seating herself beside The Matriarch.

"Right, now that we are all here," began Dimitri.

"We aren't actually." Corrected Harry "We are expecting one more party; they should be arriving very," pop "Soon."

Fleur kept her eyes on Ragnok and the elderly Dwarf as the House Elf appeared.

She watched as Ragnok very rapidly placed his hand very firmly on his companion's arm who appeared to want to demand that the latest arrival was forcibly removed.

"Dobby is here Professor Harry Potter Sir."

"Ah, now we are all here." Smiled Harry "What did the House Elf Parliament have to say Dobby."

"House Elf Parliament has agreed to join Professor Harry Potter Sir, on the condition that Goblins and Dwarves agree to peace with House Elves." explained Dobby looking towards said parties rather nervously.

Ragnok turned to look at his surprised companion who, after a moments grumbled and nodded slowly. Turning back Ragnok grinned toothily and nodded.

"The Goblin Parliament agrees to peace with our cousins the House Elves."

Dobby smiled widely before turning back to Harry.

"House Elf Parliament has appointed Dobby representative of all House Elves, Dobby speaks for all House Elves." said Dobby proudly.

"Take a seat Dobby." Smiled Harry before turning back to the assembled group.

"Now that we all here, lets get started." Resumed Dimitri, as he picked up a pile of papers in front of him and distributed them "This is a treaty our Veela friends have drawn up to seal our alliance."

Looking at the sheet in front of him Harry read the document:

_All those who sign this document agree to ally with and follow the Avatar in battle against anyone who is deemed a threat to any of the governments, groups, peoples or persons who have ratified this treaty._

_They also agree to conceal the identity of all parties involved in this treaty, with special emphasis on concealing the identity of the Court of Commanders (members to be decided) and The Avatar. All members below the level of Commander also agree to take a Wizards Oath or species equivalent to conceal aforementioned identities and those at said level only reveal said information to gain additional allies._

_Any potential member who declines to agree to the treaty must have any and all knowledge of, or relating to said treaty removed from his/her or its mind to protect those involved._

_Court Of Commanders/Senior Treaty Members:_

_Name/Seal Title Representing_

_Treaty Members:_

_Name/Seal Title Representing_

As Harry finished reading he looked up waiting for the last few people to finish, unfortunately it was Fleur, Colette and Delphine they were waiting for.

As they finished they all looked up in shock.

"The Avatar has returned." said Delphine astonished.

"Who is it?" continued Colette.

The Matriarch looked towards Harry as he slowly raised his hand.

It took less than five seconds for all three to be kneeling in front of him, their heads to the floor.

"Oh, please don't." he pleaded as he pulled them up off the floor though they refused to get off their knees.

"Yes My Lord." Said Colette in a rare display of seriousness.

"And don't call me that either." He begged, much to the amusement of The Matriarch, Ragnok, the Dwarf Elder and Dobby. The rest looked either shocked at the Veela's behaviour, the revelation or the entire situation "I'm still the same person I was this morning, please don't treat me differently."

"But My Lor..."

"Don't!!"

"Arry," continued Fleur "You're the Avatar, the Elemental Messiah, how can we not treat you with the respect that such a position entails."

"I knew we could expect great things from you Mr Potter." Smiled Ollivander.

"Because you are my mate and the rest of you are my friends," replied Harry, glaring at the wand maker "I don't want to be idolised, I don't want to be put on a pedestal, I'm the same Harry as I was when I got up this morning and I want to remain that way which is why no one outside this room except Adam is going to know that I am the Avatar and as far as all future members of this group will know the Avatar will be running this alliance and I am just another member of the team."

"But Arry."

"No Fleur."

"Ok Arry." Fleur sighed, looking to the floor.

"It makes it easier Fleur," he explained "This way I can use the mask when I am The Avatar and I can do things without revealing my identity."

Fleur reluctantly nodded before she and the other Veela got to their feet and returned to their seats.

Harry then took the master treaty from Dimitri.

"Is there any magic on this?" he asked.

"Yes, other than the Oath already mentioned in the treaty there is also a binding spell ensuring that no one can betray us, it works the same way as the spell protecting Dumbledore's Order."

Harry was about to ask how he was able to speak about the Order before he remembered that Dimitri knew about the Order but was not bound by the spells as he had found out through other means and not from the Secret Keeper.

Harry picked up the quill handed to him and signed his name in the 'Court Of Commanders/Senior Treaty Members' section and his title as 'The Avatar', as soon as his quill left the page there was a flash of light before he passed it on.

After several minutes of signing the treaty got back to him and he inspected the list of names:

_Court Of Commanders/Senior Treaty Members:_

_Name/Seal Title Representing_

_Harry Potter The Avatar Himself _

_Dimitri Delacour Comte Delacour Delacour Family _

_(Seal) Veela Matriarch Veela Colonies_

_(Seal) Head of The Goblin Parliament Goblin Parliament_

_Dobby House Elf Representative House Elf Parliament_

_Artimus Ollivander Wand Maker Himself_

_Olympe Maxime Head Mistress Of Beauxbatons Herself_

_Viktor Krum Bulgarian Seeker Himself_

_Bill Weasley Curse Breaker Himself _

_Nymphadora Tonks Auror Herself_

_Colette Fontaine Professor Herself_

There was a flash and the list of name disappeared leaving only the 'Treaty Members' section, there was another flash and all the duplicates changed to look like the one in his hands.

"Now any of us can sign up a new member using one of these duplicates and it will appear on all the other copies," explained Dimitri "These documents will disguise themselves as various other pieces of parchment when anyone else tries to read them, to reveal the treaty simply place a finger on the form and say 'I see the treaty' and it will appear, it will change back by itself when you have finished with it."

"In addition, Adam has helped us create these as a method of identifying other Treaty members." Delphine smiled, while waving her wand and making a tray appear in front of them.

All those around the table stood and looked at the tray; on the tray were signet rings; one was gold and the remaining ten silver.

"They are charmed, once they are on your finger no one but another ring bearer will be able to see them." Delphine continued, picking up the gold ring and handing it to Harry "The gold one is yours Harry, it will appear gold to us as you are the head of the Court but for any treaty member not at this meeting, excluding Adam of course, it will appear silver, that way no one will know you are our leader, the Avatar."

Harry took the gold ring and looked at the crest; it was the image of a dragons head.

"The Avatar's original form?" he asked.

"We thought it was appropriate." Explained The Matriarch with a smile as she slipped her silver ring onto her finger, allowing it to resize itself to fit, Harry noticed that the rings that were now on the fingers of the women in the room were also smaller and more delicate, making them look more natural on a female hand.

"Adam told us how to add a couple more features to your ring." Explained Delphine "Turn your ring around on your finger."

Harry looked at her confused before sliding it on to the first finger of his left hand and turning it around this finger, as it returned to its original face up position he could feel glamour spells being cast on him.

Out of the corner of his eyes he saw his hair lengthen and change colour.

Delphine conjured up a mirror and held it up for him.

The mirror displayed the image of:

"Daniel?"

"Yes," smiled Delphine brightly "We thought it would be faster than casting the spells, you turn it again to cancel the spells, but that's not all, take off the ring and put it on the other way round.

Harry did so immediately this time. As the ring slid back onto his finger he saw a cloak appear around him, his glasses disappear and the mask materialise on his face.

He didn't need to look in the mirror this time.

"The Avatar." He nodded.

"You will be able to transform even faster than Superman." Tonks laughed.

"Anyone who joins from now one will get a bronze ring," continued Delphine "To make an ordinary bronze member into a silver Court member, at least three Court members must touch that persons bronze ring. We realise that for the Veela and Goblins these rings won't be especially useful but for those of us spending time at the Ministries or at one of the schools it will allow us to instantly recognise allies."

"Good idea." Agreed Bill "How do we decide who the silver court members will be?"

"I would suggest that all members from now on become bronze members," commented Ragnok "Unless like The Matriarch, our House Elf cousin or myself they represent a large group, in which case they become silver court members."

"Agreed, but only the leader of said group receives a silver ring," added The Matriarch before turning to Delphine "How can we create more rings?"

"Turn the ring on your finger through three hundred and sixty degrees like Harry did to become Daniel and then take it off."

Ragnok immediately did so, as he pulled the ring off a bronze ring separated from his silver ring.

"Ingenious." Madam Maxime praised, as Ragnok handed the ring to the Elder Dwarf accompanying him who immediately slipped it onto his finger.

"A ring will also be created every time a new member signs the treaty." explained Delphine "In addition, you can send out an SOS to other members by squeezing your ring three times, when you do all the other members will see mental flashes of where you are, your current dilemma and who is with you, including other treaty members. If you can come to that person or persons assistance squeeze your own ring three times and the sender will receive a brief image of you so that he or she knows that help is on the way. If you need to meet the entire council squeeze your ring five times, this will give you an image of the person summoning the meeting and of the location of the meeting, squeezing back five times will send an acknowledgement."

"Excellent." Grinned Colette, before turning to Harry and curtsying with a large grin on her face "My Lord, what are your orders?"

Harry glared at her before turning to the Court.

"Well obviously we need to prepare for the war so training will be needed as well as new weapons and armour."

Ragnok and The Matriarch nodded.

"We also need to get more allies," added Harry "I have a several people I will try to sway at Hogwarts and hopefully they will have some other people they could suggest. Can you Bill and you Viktor contact the Hogwarts and Durmstrang Alumni to see if we gain some support there and if Olympe and Tonks could do the same amongst the Aurors and the staff and students of Beauxbatons. If it is ok with you Dimitri I would suggest bringing people here to convince them, letting them know that someone as powerful as you is on our side will help sway them."

"Of course Harry."

"In the mean time our House Elf allies will be doing the most important job, which is gathering intelligence. Any information that could potentially help us against Voldemort should be told to a member of this court."

"We will do you proud Professor Harry Potter Sir." Said Dobby proudly. Off to the side Harry saw a grin appear on the face of Lord Ragnok at his distant cousin's behaviour.

"Anyone else Mr Potter?" asked Ollivander..

"Didn't you mention the Valkyries?" asked Harry, looking to Dimitri.

"I did, they are an Elemental race so they should support you."

"Good, we can contact them later, does anyone have anything else to say?"

No one spoke.

"Ok," nodded Harry "Back to our respective homes, but let all those who oppose us beware, The Alliance will be watching."


	63. CH63 Called Home

Chapter 63 – Called Home

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:2__nd__ September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Staff Quarters _

_Time:Morning_

Early the next day the alarm clock in Buffy's quarters went off.

She groaned and rolled over, bringing her hand down on top of the clock a little too hard resulting in the bell and a couple of other bits of metal separating from the mechanism as the rest of it dropped to the floor

Buffy groaned again as the broken mechanism of the clock continued to rattle as it attempted to hit the now missing bell.

Buffy made a mental note to get someone to put one of those unbreakable charm things on it later on.

She would not have gotten up for hours if it were a normal weekend but thanks to the fact that term always started on September first at Hogwarts, which on this case was a Saturday making today a Sunday she had to get up and prepare for the demonstration MD lesson for so the students knew if they wanted to actually attend next weekend.

Rolling out of bed she gave the remains of the clock another whack and it stopped making noises. She plodded over to the walk in wardrobe and picked out some clothes before heading towards the bathroom.

Slipping out of her night attire she got in the shower, turning it up to scorching hot in order to wake her up.

As she freshened herself up for the day ahead she recalled everything that had happened to her in the last few weeks, after Harry had left, Hermione and Ron had explained the Wizarding world in details along with more information about Harry, his history, his relationship with Dumbledore and what had happened during their first five years at school, it bore a remarkable similarity to her own; beasts, bad guys, failed relationships and really big snakes.

That evening she had discovered a bag full of money in her quarters with a note from Adam telling her to go to Diagon Alley and buy some clothes, which she had done with Hermione and Minerva the next day, buying herself several sets of work out and 'Slayer' attire along with a couple of sets of Wizarding robes, though she doubted she would use them, thinking back she probably should have used one of them at the feast the day before.

Cleaning the nights grime off she put conditioner in her hair before going over and slipping into the hot tub, letting the conditioner do its work while she relaxed. Her mind slipping towards what had happened since, her exploration of the castle, her foot getting caught in that trip step on the stairs...four times, meeting Hagrid for the first time and getting talked into helping him with those creatures of his, not something she would forget easily.

A long time later she reluctantly climbed out of the tub and rinsed her hair out before dressing and getting ready for the day ahead.

Slowly walking down towards breakfast she greeted several students and teachers as she went.

Reaching the Great Hall she smiled to Harry friends as she passed before seating herself beside Colette.

"Morning."

"Morning, sleep well?" asked the French Professor.

"It would have been better if I didn't have to get up so early." She replied "Whose bright idea was it to hold this demonstration lessons."

"The Headmasters." Replied Colette with a smile "I like the idea; it gives us a chance to get rid of the students that just want easy qualifications, leaving us with the ones that actually want to lea...Merlin's bloomers, look at that."

* * *

At the Gryffindor table Harry had just parted from Fleur and greeted Ron and Hermione when an entire flock of owls and various other avian creatures flew in through the window and began dive bombing him.

"What in Merlin's name!" exclaimed Ron "What's going on?"

"We are being bombed by birds," replied Hermione hiding under one of her books.

"I realise that, but why are all these ruddy birds attacking us."

"Ron, don't swear." Cried Hermione, in between dodges "I'm guessing they are trying to deliver mail."

At last all the birds seemed to settle on every available surface within five meters of Harry, they seemed to all have dropped their mail and were contenting themselves with eating the student's breakfast, ignoring the various cries of complaint from the students:

"Hey!"

"Flutter off!"

"Give back my bacon!"

"How do we get rid of these things." Called a Ravenclaw as he swung at the birds with his copy of the Daily Prophet.

"Very Easily." Replied Colette as she casually walked towards the group, her skin turning to feathers as she went, the birds all slowly turned to watch her approach.

Once fully transformed Colette launched herself into the middle of the flock, with a shriek she sent the rest of the birds flying out the windows as fast as they could flap.

With a smug grin (that looked most interesting when she had a beak rather than a mouth), she slowly turned back into her original form, shock and fascination on the faces of most of the student population, though the look that Buffy sent was by far the most amusing.

"There you go, carry on."

Harry grinned before sitting back down in front of the pile of letters, scrolls and packages that were left in the flocks wake, he would have to forget about breakfast, not that he could get to it with all the mail on top of it.

There was still one bird left, a large Augurey perched on the next chair, Harry reached over to take the letter attached to its leg.

"Harry don't." called Lavender "Auguries are bad luck."

"Oh for goodness sake." Exclaimed Hermione, taking the letter from the bird and handing it to Harry before proceeding to stroke the bird's plumage, turning to Harry she asked "Whose it from?"

Harry grinned at her before opening the envelope, extracting the letter and beginning to read.

"It's from Luna's father; he's asking if I would be willing to do an interview with the Quibbler about where I was this summer."

"I guess he saw how popular our last two interviews were." Grinned Hermione "What are you going to tell him?"

"That if I do decide to tell the press that it will be his paper that I tell." replied Harry after a moment's thought.

"Here." Said Hermione withdrawing a piece of parchment and a quill from her bag.

Harry took them and scribbled a quick reply and handed it to the Augurey who flew off with a wail leaving the group alone with the huge pile of mail.

"Err, everyone start opening." He shrugged as Buffy and Fleur arrived at the table to investigate.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville (who had also just arrived, albeit it from the opposite direction), Buffy, Colette, Fleur and Lavender all started opening letters.

The first one Harry opened was a congratulations from a wizard for causing the Ministry and the Minister so much grief during the summer, the second was similar except it was from a Ministry employee chastising him causing her so much grief.

"Three interview requests with French and German papers." Said Colette, flicking through the letters in her hands.

"Remind me later to write polite apologies to those and tell them that they will have to contact the Quibbler for any stories I tell the press." Replied Harry.

"This one's an interview request with the Prophet." Said Ron almost spitting out his response "They say they are very sorry for what they have said about you in the past."

"This ones the same from Witch Weekly Magazine." Added Buffy.

"Burn them." Harry replied "I'm not even going to reply after the rumours they posted about us during our forth year."

"What have you got Neville?" asked Hermione "...Neville?"

The others turned to look at a red face Neville whose eyes were locked to the letter in front of him.

"What is it Nev?" asked Ron, moving around to look at the letter "What could, oh..."

"What?" asked Harry as Hermione and Lavender moved to look at what the boys were staring at.

As the girls saw the letter Hermione's eyes also expanded before she turned a deep shade of red, Lavender on the other hand just smirked and whistled obviously impressed by what she was seeing.

"What is it?"

"It's a letter from a fan of yours Harry, asking if you would like to meet up sometime for a...private chat, there is an enclosed photograph."

As one all four of the readers looking at the picture tilted their heads to the left.

"Those can't be real." Lavender added.

"I didn't know that position was even possible." said Neville.

"I am sure I could try it if you want Neville." Grinned Luna as she and Ginny came up behind them, making him jump.

"I...I...I..." tried Neville only to be silenced with a kiss from Luna.

"Calm down Neville." She smiled before moving to the next letter whilst turning to Harry "Have you received my father's letter yet?"

"Yes, I've already sent a reply saying that if I do talk to the press it will be to the Quibbler and they will have to buy the stories from him."

Luna smiled widely before taking the previous letter out of Neville's hand and placing it and the one she had just opened next to Harry.

"Same as the previous one, just without the picture and with more...descriptive language."

"This one's a surprise?" smiled Colette "From my father's company, wondering if you would like to do some modelling, goodness I remember writing this years ago, it must have been automatically sent out by your emancipation and as you have been hiding all summer this is the first time if could reach you."

"I would say the same is true of this one." Said Fleur stiffly "It's from Playwizard asking the same thing but with fewer clothes."

"Burn it." Replied Harry "Only you get to see me like that."

The look on Lavenders and the rest of the halls faces was amazing, over thirty chins dropped.

"You...you two are..."

"Yes."

"Professor Dumbledore's allowing it?" she asked.

"I didn't give him any choice; I proved that there is no way he can legally force us to separate."

"Morganna." She exclaimed slumping into a seat.

Harry chuckled before turning to Luna.

"Remind me later to give you an interview about my summer for you to send to your father."

Moving onto the first package Harry opened the lid, as soon as it was open there was a bang and a cloud of smoke appeared.

"Merlin, what did that?" called Ron from somewhere in the cloud.

"This package," replied Harry as Fleur and Colette vanished the cloud.

As soon as the others were able to see Harry they started laughing.

"What?"

"You look," tried Hermione in between fits of laughter "You look like a panda Harry."

Withdrawing a pocket mirror from her trousers, a laughing Lavender opened it up and presented it to Harry.

His entire face was black except for his eyes.

Fleur, deciding to take pity on Harry withdrew her wand and cast a cleaning charm on Harry.

"Who was that from?" asked Ron trying not to pull a muscle from laughing to hard at the annoyed look on Harry's face.

Reaching into the box Harry pulled out a letter with a header that read:

_Weasley Wizard Wheezes_

"Oh, we should have known," sighed Harry "It's from your brothers."

"Your right, we should have known." Grinned Ron "What do they want?"

"It says, in their usual style; hello, I hope you enjoyed your present, how have you been, what have you been up to, congratulations for shocking the entire school and for getting Snape. They then follow that up with a short graph and table showing the current state of my shares and finishes with 'Mischief Managed'."

"Why does that not surprise me." Commented Hermione, still trying to regain her composure.

"What do the other letters say?" asked Harry.

"Well there are six like the one Neville opened," replied Luna "Five from women, one from a man, four more from women without pictures, eight letters of congratulations, seven letters chastising you, there of which were howlers including one from Ron and Ginny's mother, all of which I disabled, seven international interview requests, four home interview requests, three letters from those at your party asking how you have been and who April was and finally the packages were from companies asking you to either model, indorse or buy their products, the packages contain free samples."

"Samples?"

"Copies of Playwizard, catalogues from Professor Fontaine's and other clothes stores and a box of sample chocolates from Honeydukes called Harry's Hazelnuts."

"Harry's Hazelnuts?" he laughed.

Opening the box Luna tasted one of the small lightning bolt shaped chocolates.

"They're pretty good." She replied "The accompanying letter said that they are expecting such high sales that they are offering you fifty percent of the profits."

"Do I have to do anything?" he asked.

"Just give them permission to make the chocolates using your name."

"Ok then." Nodded Harry "It could be fun to have sweets named after me; I don't even think Dumbledore has managed that, was there anything else?"

"Just this one." Replied Fleur, handing him an envelope with the Gringotts crest on it.

Opening it Harry began to read, his face turning serious as he did.

"What is it Arry?" asked Fleur, moving to look over his shoulder, luckily thanks to Harry she could now read English as well as she could speak it.

"It's about Sirius," he replied "The Ministry have finally sorted out how his criminal record effects his will and they have set a date for the reading, as soon as I say I can attend as the primary beneficiary they will be sending our summons to all the others who need to attend."

Hermione conjured another sheet of parchment and handed it to him as he scribbled a reply.

"I will have Hedwig deliver this later."

Before another word could be said the doors opened loudly as the Minister or Magic complete with a pair of Auror bodyguards entered.

Walking up behind Harry.

"Harry, we are overjoyed to see you alive and well, we were most worried about you."

"Thank you for your concern Minister but it was not needed." Replied Harry, not turning to the annoying man.

"Tell me Harry, were have you been all this time." Asked Fudge, trying not to get annoyed at being ignored.

"Hiding." Replied Harry shortly still not turning to the Minister, he could see his friends out of his peripheral vision trying hard to keep straight faces at the scene.

"Please Harry, tell us where you were." the Minister asked again.

"I do not see how it concerns you Minister, I am here, I am obviously safe so why do you need to know?"

"We need to know who kidnapped you Harry so that we can arrest them." Replied Fudge his face beginning to twitch at Harry's refusal to cooperate.

"Kidnapping implies taking me away without my consent, I was not taken without my consent therefore you do not need to know."

Fudge twitched at the phrase.

"Harry please..."

"Unless you have other business here Minister, I request as a Hogwarts Professor that you leave."

"As a what?" demanded Fudge.

"As a Hogwarts Professor." Repeated Fleur.

"Miss Delacour, please stay out of this." Said Fudge, trying his hardest not to snarl.

"That's Lady Delacour to you Fudge." Returned Fleur, taking over from Harry in annoying the man.

"I am the Minister of Magic; you WILL address me with respect."

"Was that a threat Fudge?" asked Colette, joining the fun "That would make a wonderful newspaper headline 'British Minister of Magic causes international incident, Minister Fudge threatens daughter of next French Minister of Magic', imagine how well that one would sell."

Fudge fumed for a moment before turning on his heals and storming out of the room, his Auror guards running after him in order to keep up.

"He just wants to make himself look good in they eyes of the public by arresting someone." Commented Hermione.

"I will be interested to see how he plans to get me back for not telling him." Smiled Harry.

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:2__nd__ September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Professor Radcliffe's Office_

_Time:Late Morning_

Harry was just finishing arranging the last of his pictures in the cabinets along the walls of his new office when there was a knock at the door.

"Come in." he answered walking around behind his desk.

The door opened to reveal his Head of House.

"Good morning Professor." She smiled entering and closing the door.

"Professor McGonagall, how can I help you?" he asked gesturing her towards one of the seats on the other side of his desk "I'm afraid I can't offer you tea and biscuits as I haven't got any."

McGonagall smiled as she settled into the seat.

"It is perfectly alright Po...May I call you Harry, I don't feel comfortable referring to one of my colleagues by their last name.

"Of course Professor, but please excuse me if I continue to call you Professor, as I am still a student most half the time it makes things easier. Now errr, how may I help you?" he asked, rather awkwardly, not used tom being on the opposite side of the desk.

McGonagall reached into her robes and withdrew an envelope before handing it to him.

"Your OWL results, they were delivered here when they could not find you."

Opening the envelope Harry pulled out the parchment held within and began to read.

_Ordinary Wizarding Levels for Harry J. Potter _

_Written Practical Overall _

_Ancient Runes N/A _

_N/A N/A _

_Arithmancy N/A _

_N/A N/A _

_Astronomy A _

_A A _

_Care of Magical Creatures E _

_E E _

_Charms E _

_O E _

_Defence Against the Dark Arts O _

_O O _

_Divination A _

_A A _

_Herbology E _

_E E _

_History of Magic D _

_N/A D _

_Muggle Studies N/A _

_N/A N/A _

_Potions O _

_O O _

_Transfigurations E _

_O E _

_Total _

_8 _

_ Due to an incident during the examination, all results were set to Acceptable. A retest will be available to all who wish to attempt to better this result. _

_ A retest will be offered, since there has never before been a student attacked during an exam. _

_ The proctor stated that if there were a grade above Outstanding, this student would have been granted such a grade._

"Better than I expected," smiled Harry "Though I will retake Astronomy and History of Magic,"

"Very wise Harry, but we have a problem to discus before we even get to retaking exams."

"What Professor?"

"What NEWT's you are going to take and how are you to take your NEWT's if you are teaching at the same time?"

"I have thought about that Professor, am I correct in thinking that a student can be allowed not to attend a class if he or she proves that they can pass all that subjects exams with above acceptable results."

"This is true," nodded the Professor "What classes were you planning on taking and skipping?"

"Well for NEWT's I was planning on taking DADA, Transfiguration, Charms, Potions and then I was going to drop Divination and COMC and pick up Ancient Runes and Arithmancy if I am allowed."

"You may be allowed to with the Professor's permission, but which of the others are you going to skip."

"I was planning on taking the tests for Charms, DADA, Potions and Transfiguration."

McGonagall raised an eyebrow.

"You are probably skilled enough to skip Defence Against the Dark Arts and possibly in Charms, I won't say anything about potions, but unfortunately Harry you are not skilled enough to skip Transfiguration."

Harry smiled before standing and moving to the side of the desk where he, much to his Head of House's surprise, transformed into a stag before her very eyes.

"Harry," she gasped after several seconds as she stood and moved around him, inspecting his appearance "I am VERY impressed. You became an Animagus in just one summer."

Harry nodded his large head, being careful to make sure that his antlers did not hit the Professor.

Transforming back into his human form, Harry returned to his chair.

"I presume you are registered with the French Ministry Of Magic?" continued McGonagall.

"Yes, it's a lovely little loop hole in Wizarding Law that. I never have to tell anyone in Britain that I am an Animagus, just so long as I am registered somewhere."

"There are so many holes in Wizarding Law rule book that an entire Quidditch team can pass straight through the pages," agreed McGonagall, before she remembered something "While I remember Harry, over the summer I managed to get your Quidditch ban lifted, you can now resume your place on the team."

"Thank you Professor." Beamed Harry, he had missed Quidditch, even if he had been playing all summer he still missed the competition of the game."

"I will have your broom returned to your quarters," she smiled, standing up "I will see you later Harry."

"Goodbye Professor."

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:2__nd__ September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Muggle Defence Classroom_

_Time:Afternoon_

During that morning many students had turned up for the demonstration History of Magical Creatures and Alternative Magic classes (it was decided that Duelling didn't actually need a demonstration as everyone knew what it was) and now there was only Muggle Defence left, Adam and Buffy were busy sparring, awaiting the student's arrival.

Buffy was dressed (now that she had some clothes other than the ones in which she had arrived) in blue jeans and a red top.

Adam was wearing the same sort of clothing he had been wearing ever since the students returned: the usual black shirt, tie, trousers that he used to wear along with a cloak with silver trim, thanks to his magic he did not need to buy anything as he could change clothes with a snap of his fingers, Buffy guest that the cloak was actually just his...what was the word...oh yes, transfigured coat, though he had been generous enough when he left earlier in the summer to leave Buffy enough to buy several really good sets of work out and practical clothes as well as a couple of sets of robes and other assorted Wizarding attire though she doubted she would wear them much.

The room that had chosen was impressive, thirty meters square, the floor was covered in crash mats and the walls were lined with weapons of every description. Those House Elf creatures had definitely done a good job of tweaking it to their needs.

Buffy and Adam were stretching while discussing the revelations of Dumbledore's speech.

"Why didn't you tell me that there was a Werewolf here?" Buffy asked.

"I thought it would be a nice surprise for you. Anyway, he is only one three days a month."

"I'm not complaining about it, I of all people know what good people Werewolves can be, but you still could have told me, if the Headmaster hadn't told everyone it would have been bothering me for weeks to find out what was going on with him."

"My apologize. What is your opinion of the Wizarding World?" he inquired whilst stretching his neck.

Buffy laughed. "Very different...wands, ghosts, moving stairs...blast-ended skrewts."

Adam's mouth stretched into a half-smile.

"I take it you've seen Hagrid other than at meal times."

"Yeah, some of his creatures are cool but the skrewts were just scary. I hope we don't have to cover how to defeat them in Muggle Defence lessons."

"I should not think so and you might want to call it MD, it's easier to say." Adam suggested, doing a series of back flips before walking over to one of the shelves, removing a quarterstaff and starting to run through a series of very rapid manoeuvres.

"Oh and speaking of things that are easy on the mouth, Berio-Megtra?" Buffy asked, removing another quarterstaff and moving to spar with Adam.

"Berio-Meg.ill.tour.ra," he said, emphasising each syllable. "It was a name someone gave me a long time ago." Adam explained, a memory flashing through his mind before vanishing back into the deepest realms of this mind.

Moving his hands down his staff so he was holding it like a sword, Adam then proceeded to knock Buffy's staff out of her hand before hooking his own under her leg and pulling so that she collapsed to the floor.

"There is more that one way to use a staff," he pointed out, extending his hand and pulling her to her feet.

At that moment the first students knocked and entered, Harry, Ron, Hermione and two others, a red headed girl, Buffy knew to be Ron's sister and another boy, he was shorter than Harry and a bit bulkier, but as Harry was as thin as a rake, that's not hard to imagine.

"Afternoon, Professor Berio, Professor Summers", Hermione said, studying the layout of the room.

"Afternoon, Hermione," Adam replied "Ron, Professor Potter."

Harry groaned much to Buffy's amusement, now he knew how she felt when the students addressed her as such, though technically he had been teaching for several weeks already, what made it weirder for her though was that quiet a few of them were taller than her, she wondered how that really short Professor managed to express any authority when even the first years were taller than him.

"Please don't make me beg you not to call me that." Pleaded Harry "It was bad enough at Beauxbatons."

"Think of the bright side Harry," grinned Ron "You can give Malfoy detention whenever you want."

"Ron," chastised Hermione "Harry will only use his abilities as a teacher responsibly, wont you Harry."

"Of course." Nodded Harry, before sending a subtle wink at Ron which he was certain Hermione saw.

Adam, deciding to leave the subject and walked over to one of the other students.

"You must be Ron's sister," he smiled, extended his hand.

"Ginny Weasley, yes Professor." she said, taking his hand.

"Adam," he introduced, kissing her hand and making her blush. "None of you have to call me Professor in this room, just in the halls to keep up appearances. The same goes for Buffy."

"And ME." stressed Harry "I'm only going to be a Professor while teaching."

"And your name is?" Asked Adam, turning to the last member of the group and extending his hand again.

"Ne...Neville Longbottom," he managed to say, taking the outstretched hand.

By this time, the rest of the students had filtered in, there were about thirty in total, including all the DA members.

"Welcome one and all to Muggle Defence. In this club we intend to teach it as you would a class, awarding you points etc but I am sure you will be devastated to hear that we will not be setting homework other than practice," there were silent cheers and looks of relief from the students "We will split the sessions into two parts, hand to hand and armed combat."

There were murmurs of excitement.

"Professor Summers will handle hand to hand, while I will teach you armed. You will see that around the room are various weapons. Only myself or Professor Summers can remove them from the walls, so don't try. Next I'm glad to see that the message reached you all and you are all without ties and constricting robes," he commented, removing his tie and then his cloak and holding them up. "Robes and cloaks can get in the way. Could you also remove your shoes and socks, as during hand to hand training sessions they can cause more damage than intended. Lastly in this room, for those of you that did not hear, you do not need to refer to us as Professor, just Adam and Buffy, as this is a more informal working environment."

At the nods from the class, Buffy continued where he left off.

"Alright, we are going to start by giving you a little demonstration of what can be done in hand to hand combat. As you can see, Adam is significantly taller and more heavily built than I am."

There were sighs from the female occupants of the room, which made Adam, Hermione, Buffy and most of the male students roll their eyes.

"But just because I am smaller that does not mean he will defeat me. The fact that he has been practising for a LOT longer," she said, exchanging a smirk with him. "May, but strength isn't everything. With the right amount of speed and leverage, you can beat an opponent significantly larger then yourself, as we will now demonstrate."

They moved into the centre of the room and the class gathered around to watch. Adam launched himself at Buffy whilst throwing a punch at her head. Buffy blocked his first punch, redirected his second before grabbed his extended arm as he tried a third, twisted around on the spot, bent over and pulled. Adam went flying over her head and landed on his back on the mat at least three meters away.

Buffy knew he could easily have stopped her, hit her with every punch and probably could have avoided falling on his back as well if he wanted, but for the purpose of the demonstration he didn't.

Getting to his feet Adam turned to the class who were all staring at Buffy open mouthed.

"That was just a quick demonstration of what you can do with the right training," said Buffy.

"We will start today by teaching you how to punch and block. We know that may sound simple, but you have to start somewhere. Will everyone please pair off and find a space, do some stretching and then punch and block like this." Adam moved to punch Buffy's face and was blocked and deflected by Buffy's forearm. "Alternate your arms. Please don't use your full force. We do not want broken bones." finished Adam.

The group paired off: Harry with Ron, Hermione with Luna, and so on. Everyone paired off until only two people were left, Ginny and...

"Malfoy...Where did you come from?" Ginny exclaimed.

"I've been here all the time, Miss Weasley. You just weren't looking," he sneered back, he didn't seen to like the situation any more than she did. "I suppose we better start punching or the Professors will get annoyed." Ginny reluctantly agreed and they started, Ginny punching and Draco blocking.

* * *

After about ten minutes, Adam told them to switch roles and then continued to move around the room, correcting posture, offering help. Buffy was sure that some of the female occupants were deliberately doing it wrong just to get Adam's attention, she was also pretty sure some of the male ones were doing the same for her, Adam told her only to focus on the girls while he did the same for the boys for this lesson, that way they could hopefully get rid of those who wasn't serious about learning.

* * *

"Draco, I may be a girl and a lot smaller than you but you can hit a bit harder than that."

Draco stopped, surprised.

"What?" Ginny asked.

"You called me Draco."

"Yes, so?"

"You've never done that before."

"Yes well, if for whatever reason you are going to be in these classes and we are likely to have to work together more often and if we are sneering at each other all the time one of us is likely to end up injuring the other." she responded fairly cheerfully, as he resumed punching, though a bit harder this time.

After another minute, Adam approached them.

"Very good Miss Weasley. Try to change the direction of the hit as well as blocking it. When you move your arm to intercept, keep it moving so the hit falls past your shoulder, otherwise you will end up with a very bruised arm. Like this." He assumed Ginny's position and deflected the hit Draco sent his way "You try."

She resumed her position and tried again.

"Very good." He then turned to the rest of the group. "Ok now we will work on counter attack."

* * *

The class continued for another hour. They learned simple ways to punch, block, deflect, counter attack, and started learning how to kick.

"Well done everyone. We hope to see you all next Saturday, when we will continue kicking and start using close combat weapons."

The class dispersed and started discussing the fun they had had in the last two hours until only the Harry, Ron Hermione, Ginny and Neville were left talking to the Professors and Draco was tying up his shoes.

"So what did you guys think?" Buffy asked.

"It will definitely be worth giving up Saturday afternoons for." Ron complimented. Fortunately, he hadn't seen Ginny being paired off with Draco, or they would have had a real fight on their hands.

"Thank you. We hoped you would enjoy it. You should definitely appreciate next week's class as we'll be using AAARRRRRRRR." Adam cried out, doubling over.

At the same time, Buffy and Harry collapsed to the floor in pain.

"HARRY!"

"ADAM!"

"BUFFY!"

"PROFESSORS!" called the others simultaneously, moving to them.

Adam and Buffy were in tremendous pain. Fire burned through their bodies. If Adam were not as strong as he was, he would have been writhing on the floor like Buffy was.

Harry's mind was pounding. He felt like he had just been hit over the head with a sledgehammer. "NOT ARRRRGGHH AGAIN," he managed to say through the pain.

FLASH

Four people sitting in a circle between two graves

FLASH

BUFFY ANNE SUMMERS

1981-2001

BELOVED SISTER

DEVOTED FRIEND

SHE SAVED THE WORLD

A LOT

FLASH

ADAM

THE BEGINNING - 2001

BELOVED MASTER

DEVOTED FRIEND

LORD OF TIME

AND GUARDIAN OF ALL

FLASH

A red headed woman killing a fawn

FLASH

"Here lay the warriors of the people. Let them cross over."

FLASH

The ground around the four people shaking

FLASH

The Muggle Defence Room

FLASH

The ground beneath Adam and Buffy spiralling away.

FLASH

The pain ceased and Harry staggered to his feet. Adam and Buffy were still suffering. Buffy was convulsing on the floor while Adam was on his knees doing his best to fight the pain and remain upright at the same time.

"We have to move them quickly," Harry gasped out, still recovering from the vision.

"What?" Ginny asked from his side.

"Move them, NOW!"

They managed to pull Buffy out of the way. Adam was harder, as he was still on his knees and therefore couldn't be dragged. They moved him just as the floor opened in the form of a swirling portal, exactly where the Professors just were.

Draco had been standing in shock at what he had been seeing the whole time.

"Draco, get Dumbledore," Ginny called out, turning to him. Draco snapped out of whatever stunned state he had been in just in time to grab Ginny and pull her out of the way as the portal expanded outwards under where her right foot had been less than a second before. It seemed to be following the Professors.

"Get Dumbledore," she said again after giving him a thank you smile.

Draco nodded and ran from the room.

The others moved Buffy as far away from the portal as the wall would allow, she was totally overcome with the pain. Ron was trying to set up shielding charms, but they were not powerful enough and the portal passed straight through them, Harry tried to assist but the vision had almost knocked him unconscious.

They were now separated by the portal. Buffy, Ron, Neville and Ginny had been pushed against one wall of the room by the expanding object. The rest were pinned at the other end of the room.

None of them could reach the door now. Harry and Hermione kept trying to move Adam, but fighting the pain meant that he was resisting with all his might, even levitation was hard.

Adam suddenly snapped his eyes open and straightened up with great effort.

He flung his hand towards the startled Harry and Hermione and sent the flying away from the vanishing piece of floor under their feet, across to the other end of the room.

They by some luck managed to land on their feet beside Ginny, Ron, Neville and Buffy on the slightly large piece of land.

Adam altered the position of his hand.

"Thangail."

A shield of transparent white light engulfed the wall and its occupants. The portal stopped advancing when it reached the shield protecting Buffy and the others.

"ADAM!" Hermione called out.

Adam realized that it was a warning a second too late. The portal hit his right foot and sucked it in.

Dumbledore flung himself through the doorway followed closely by Draco and Professors McGonagall and Snape.

"Oh Merlin," Draco exclaimed. "It's got a lot bigger."

The portal now engulfed the entire room except a meter square around the door, the wall covered by Adams white translucent shield and the area under Adam's left foot.

Adam flung his hands out as his left foot got sucked in and he got absorbed up to his waist. His hands were held palm down and you could literally see the magic radiating from his hands, keeping him from sinking lower, they were like the heat waves from a jet engine.

Behind the shield, all eyes were focused on Adam. A strange thing happened to Buffy, who was still convulsing on the floor. A ghostly white image of her seemed to be pulled from her body. As soon as the image left her the pain ceased and she slowly sat up.

The image got pulled through the shield before any of the others could react and got sucked into the portal. Adam tried to grab it, but only succeeded in getting pulled in further.

At that moment, a name appeared in Harry's mind. Somehow he knew it was important.

"OSIRIS."

Adam snapped his eyes to Harry, understanding what he was saying, and nodded.

With one final effort Adam flung an extra surge of magic down his arms and into the portal, sending him flying towards the ceiling. A ghostly white image of him was left as he rocketed away from the portal, the image got sucked through.

Adam seemed to drain when the ghostly figure separated from him, but he was no longer in pain or being sucked in. A blinding white light was emitted from his eyes and mouth as he hovered in the air above the portal.

"Osiris, pron Adam, Tirno Calaquendi, pron can lye, sollen pron assa."

The portal fluctuated.

"Pron Maethor a Arato nad art Eru, pron, can lye, SOLLEN...PRON...ASSA!"

The portal diminished, shrank and then vanished. Adam waved his hand at the wall and the shield vanished letting the others out, he sighed in relief before dropping to the ground like a stone.

"Mokir assa," was all he managed to groan before colliding hard with the floor, conscious but very evidently drained.

Ginny ran to his side. "Professor, PROFESSOR," she said while shaking him vigorously.

"I told you to call me Adam" he groaned "By the Gods I hate portals." getting to his feet he was aided by Ginny and Draco, no less.

It was now for the first time that Ron noticed Draco.

"Get away from them, Malfoy." Ron spat out, starting to move towards Draco.

"It's ok Ron," Adam reassured him, turning to Draco. "He's not like that anymore."

Draco looked worried. He wasn't going to tell them about not wanting to be a Death Eater? How in Merlin's name did he know?

When Adam with great effort straightened and turned to Dumbledore, his worried look did not go unnoticed.

"Albus, we need to have a meeting."

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:2__nd__ September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Dumbledore's Office_

_Time:Afternoon_

A few minutes later in Dumbledore's Office; The teachers (including Buffy, Harry, Fleur, Colette and Tonks), Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny and to the Ron's great annoyance, Draco were all present.

Buffy was lying back in a chair, beside Dumbledore's desk while Adam mirrored her on the other side of the desk, both trying to recover from whatever had just happened to them, Adam looked by far the worse, his condition was best described as the look of exhaustion that a marathon runner would wear after staggering over the finish line, he was again twiddling his silver disk between his fingers though slower than previously.

Adam had just finished explaining what had happened in the MD room.

"What caused the portal?" inquired Lupin.

"Four people sitting between two graves," Harry answered to the surprise of all except Adam.

"Let me guess..." said Adam sighing. "One blond, one brunette and one red headed woman accompanied by one dark short haired man."

Harry nodded, although he had no idea how Adam would know that.

"Willow, Xander, Tara and Anya." Buffy realized, attempting and failing to get up.

"They were conducting the Rite of Osiris on us." continued Adam.

Dumbledore and Snape both gasped at this, which made people stare at the unusually vocal Potions Professor, other than being the black hole in the room; he usually didn't make any noise what so ever other than arguing and complaining with whomever else was present.

"Don't they realise how dangerous that was?" Snape almost shouted, launching himself away from the wall

Adam turned to Harry "When you saw them by the graves did anyone of the group look particularly dominant or in charge?"

"Yes, the red head, the others looked worried, her eyes were black and she had blood on her cheeks, I think by that point the others wanted to stop."

Adam nodded in worry.

"I thought as much. Xander and Anya don't have any magical power on their own and Tara wouldn't do anything that dangerous without being talked into it. She has more sense." He sighed. "Willow is more reckless."

"Are they ok?" Buffy asked, still trying to get up, but not being allowed to by Hermione and Harry, who were holding her arms down.

"They're fine," Harry answered.

"The thing that worries me is the fact that I think they succeeded," Adam said quietly through his weakened state.

"What?" Snape and Dumbledore asked in unison.

Adam slowly turned. "Did you notice the white image of both myself and Buffy getting pulled into the portal?" At the nods of those who were present, he continued. "I believe that that was an aspect of myself and Buffy getting pulled back. Osiris submitted too easily to my counter spell, it's only because he got a part of us through that he closed the portal so quickly, I believe that the portal absorbed an aspect of our power. In my case, it absorbed a large proportion of my magic and for Buffy; I believe it absorbed her Slayer strength."

"What?" Buffy asked, sitting up now that she had recovered a bit.

Adam climbed to his feet and walked over to her.

"Hit me."

"What?"

"Hit me...You won't hurt me any more than I already have been."

She unsteadily got to her feet with the aid of Hermione and Harry and rather unspectacularly punched him in the jaw.

"OOOWWW...I might not hurt you but that most certainly hurt me...Jesus." Buffy complained, shaking her hand in an attempt to remove the pain.

"Like I said, your Slayer strength has gone, but I believe that you still have all the agility and speed, which is just as well really. Otherwise I'd have to teach MD by myself."

"No offence, Professor Berio, but if you don't mind me saying, you look like you can barely stand." observed Lupin.

"No offence taken and call me Adam. That goes for all of you," he said, turning to the rest of the room. "And in regards to my physical state, it should improve greatly when I retrieve a certain object from my Gringotts vault." He turned to Buffy. "I believe I also can retrieve an object that will assist Buffy now that she has lost her Slayer strength."

"What?" Buffy asked curiously.

"A wand."

"WHAT?" The word and various other incarnations of confusion and shock were echoed by the rest of the population of the room.

"But she's a Mud, I mean a Muggle," exclaimed Draco, quickly correcting himself, receiving warning glances from most of the room, though Ginny, Dumbledore and Adam looked pleased that he had corrected himself without being told to.

"Mr. Malfoy is correct Adam," Albus commented. "She is Muggle and therefore unable to use a wand or any other form of magical device."

Adam smiled at Dumbledore. "Look at her aura."

"I'm sorry, her what?" asked Ginny.

"Aura, it's a unique pattern of magic that flows through everyone, it varies from person to person. Muggle's, Wizards, Slayers, Demons, every type of being has its own unique signature. Only the very powerful can see them. Do you see it, Albus?" he asked, turning to Dumbledore, who was studying Buffy through squinted eyes.

Adam also sent a glance at Harry who was trying to do the same without being noticed, he could see that Buffy's magical aura was now similar to that of Hermione (as she was sitting next to Buffy she was the easiest to compare to).

"Yes," said Dumbledore, a little surprised. "Her Slayer powers must have been suppressing it."

"My thoughts exactly, if I am not mistaken then every Slayer may also be like Buffy, but as you said her Slayer powers suppresses it. Blasted Shadow Men." He whispered the last section to himself. "But now that Buffy is not a complete Slayer, she should be able to access it."

"Access what?" Buffy demanded. She had been getting more and more annoyed that she was being talked about and not to and that no one had discussed what it was that she was now supposed to have. "What have I got? What am I now?"

"A witch."


	64. CH64 Duelling Lessons

Chapter 64 – Duelling Lessons

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:2__nd__ September 2001 AD _

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Staff Quarters _

_Time:Evening_

"It can't be, it just can't be." Exclaimed Buffy as she paced up and down the length of her room.

"It can and it is." Tonks stated from her position against the end of Buffy's bed. The Auror had made fast friends with the Slayer Witch. Buffy had been fascinated by the way Tonks could change her appearance at will, and had broken down in hysterics the first time Tonks had done her pig nose. Currently though Buffy was on the verge of breaking down.

Her strength, though still greater than that of a normal human was severely diminished, though she was not as weak as she first appeared, it had just taken time for her Slayer power's to return to their current strength, she could now hit someone without crying out in pain but they didn't fly quiet as far as they used to.

"I know it can, but it still can't." ranted Buffy "I mean, what does this mean for me, how am I supposed to fight demons when I am barely stronger than the average human."

"Is that so bad?" Asked Tonks.

"It is when you have had many times that level of strength for over five years." Returned Buffy "I mean if a wand gets knocked out of my hand I now become almost defenceless."

"You still have your speed."

"It's no good being fast if you can't actually hit your enemies across the room."

"I seem to manage." Tonks replied raising an eyebrow "You just need to get used to fighting with what you have now; I could help you with that."

Buffy turned to her, looking hopeful.

"Would you?"

"Outside of the Department of Mysteries I have the best combat training that Britain can provide and as a Level Two Auror, Detail Leader, I have the experience and ability to fine tune the training of others."

"You don't mind training me?" asked Buffy.

"Of course not." Returned Tonks "Why by the end of the month I could have you 'dusting' vampires with nothing but a wand and a spell."

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:4th September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Duelling Classroom_

_Time:Morning_

The first Tuesday of the term rolled around and Harry was nervously waiting for his first Duelling Class to begin.

He knew most of the Gryffindor's had been eagerly awaiting this class and had been excitedly discussing it since they had received their timetables the day before. Some of them had enquired about his lack of a timetable and he merely smiled knowingly, not answering their questions. He had spent the rest of the days leading up to Tuesday taking his exams, to facilitate his skipping of the lessons.

He had loved the look on the face of the examiner doing his Defence practical, you were required to duel the examiner and disable him and he had managed to do it five times with each test lasting less than twenty seconds. Of course, he managed an O for both aspects of his Defence OWL.

Professor's Flitwick and McGonagall were equally as surprised when he had passed both their classes Practical Exams with O's and managed to get high E's for both the written, averaging both results out as O's,

The best part of the day had been when he had come out of his potions exam and shown Snape his ten perfect potions, the look on his face would stay with him forever, but at the moment though, thoughts had deserted him.

So there he was, anxiously awaiting the sixth years as they made their way to him from Transfiguration, the class was large at around thirty five from all four houses, though there were very few from Slytherin, he guessed that the number of students would drop when they got serious about duelling, he doubted Crabbe and Goyle would last.

He tried to distract himself by thinking back to the draft copy of the Quibbler article about his summer that Luna had written:

_HARRY POTTER'S CONTINENTAL CAPPERS_

_Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, today revealed to a Quibbler reporter exactly what he has been up to this summer._

_According to Mr Potter he was rescued from the abuse of his relatives and the near fatality of the Wizarding Flu by none other than Fleur Delacour, the Beauxbatons Triwizard Champion, Under Eighteens Duelling Champion, quarter Veela and daughter of the eminent Dimitri Delacour, the man touted as the next French Minister of Magic._

_Miss Delacour had dropped in to visit Mr. Potter, a good friend since the Triwizard Tournament, and had discovered him beaten and very sick. She rushed him to her doctor in France, stating that she didn't at all trust the English doctors._

_When he recovered after several days of healing Miss Delacour informed him that he could stay as long as he wanted, Mr Potter expressed a desire to stay hidden for a while and took up Miss Delacour's offer willingly, as well as her following offer to use their family lawyer to get his 'guardians' imprisoned for their treatment of him during the summer, it is not known whether his relatives treatment was limited to this school year or if Mr Potter has always been treated badly by his 'guardians'._

_During his time in France, Mr Potter spent some time studying for school and became even more proficient at Defence than he had been before, as well as greatly increasing his skill in his other classes._

_At one point during the summer, after Mr Potter's disappearance had been revealed to the world, Madam Maxime, the Headmistress of Beauxbatons Academy Of Magic visited the Chateau and seeing Mr Potter there requested his assistance in teaching her students Flying and Duelling (Beauxbatons has a different term system to Hogwarts)._

_Mr Potter agreed and under the protection of a second legal identity, acquired from the French Ministry Of Magic, taught the Beauxbatons students, earning two Double EAGLES in the process by teaching both OWL and NEWT classes in both subjects._

The rest of the article had yet to be written but was to describe his new position at Hogwarts, he has no doubt the information about the Duelling Competition would be revealed soon, but he wasn't going to be the one to tell the papers about it.

He was currently garbed as Daniel so only four members of the class would know who he was but that still did not make him feel any better.

As the class filled into the large padded room he exchanged looks with Hermione, Ron, Neville and Luna before addressing the class.

"Welcome to Duelling, I am sure I do not need to explain to you what this class is about so lets go straight ahead with a demonstration to prove that I know what I am talking about."

He paused for a moment before continuing.

"Last year there was a club called the DA, in which many of you were taught to duel while that fool Umbridge had you just reading books."

There were various nods from around the room.

"Right, so let's start with a duel, can I have Miss Granger and Miss Lovegood out here in the duelling circle as well as Mr Weasley, Mr Longbottom, Mr Malfoy, Mr Crabbe and Mr Goyle."

The group moved out onto the mat, those who knew who he was looking surprised, he couldn't be planning what they were thinking. Malfoy and the other Slytherins on the other hand just looked smug as they thought he could never possibly beat all of them.

"Ok I want all of you to attack me," there were several gasps from around the class "And I am going to try to defeat you all, this way I can also compare the skills of those of you who had the DA training against the skills of those who do not, you are out if you are disabled or thrown out of the ring."

He moved to the centre of the circle as most of the others spread out around him, stupidly the Slytherin's did not; they would pay for that mistake.

"Begin?"

He didn't even wait for the first spell to be fired as he flipped backwards towards the Slytherin's, several hexes and jinxes flying through the space he had previously been occupying. Several of the DA members had positioned themselves badly and had to dodge each other's spells, that was not a mistake they would make again.

Twisting and dropping to his knees at the end of his flip, he fired a blasting hex at the Slytherins at less than a meter range, he watched as Malfoy's eyes flew open, he barely had time to dive sideways as but both of his bodyguards were blasted out of the circle.

Harry smiled.

Strike two. With his first shot as well.

Instinctively rolling to the side, Harry dodged the curses landing where his feet had been before spinning and firing a pair of stunners towards Ron and Neville, aiming them just to one side of each of them so that they dodged in the direction he wanted.

Ron did exactly as he hopped and dived to his left, Neville unfortunately didn't and tried to block the spell with a shielding charm, Harry watched the surprise on Neville's face as the stunner blasted straight through his shield and threw him out of the ring, sending Ron who had dived behind him out as well, he had intended for them to go flying into each other, but this worked too.

Strike four.

Standing he turned and fired of a pair of spells at Hermione and Luna, both of whom sidestepped his curses and quickly repositioned themselves to fill the gaps in the circle so that Draco was on one side of him and they were standing at the four and eight o'clock positions of the circle, which ensured that that their attacks would not hit each other and that Harry was surrounded.

He heard Draco behind him cast a rather nasty but unfortunately completely legal hex, Hermione and Luna synchronized their attacks to his.

Time to finish the duel.

Dodging Malfoy's spell he raised both his arms and raised shields with both his wand and empty hand, reflecting their spells back at them. Hermione, not expecting this was knocked out leaving Draco and Luna.

Malfoy getting annoyed fired another nasty spell at him and again Luna synchronized her attack.

What happened would have looked wonderful if it were shown in a movie in slow motion.

Casually sidestepping Luna's spell he moved to the side as Malfoy's spell past him, extending his wand the tip touched the flying spell.

Bending over backwards he brought his wand with the spell attached around in an arc before throwing it back at the astonished Slytherin, blasting him backwards as mushrooms started to painfully sprout up all over his face.

With a very quick hand gesture he summoned Draco's wand from him as he flew out of the circle, spinning around he dodged Luna's next attack before firing a pair of powerful disarmers at her.

He watched as Luna grinned as both spells flew at before blasting her out of the match sending her wand flying into Harry's outstretched hand.

He slowly turned to the surprised and astonished looks on the faces of most of the class; there was a short pause before a revived Hermione stared to clap, shortly followed by most of the rest of the class, Crabbe, Goyle and a mushroom faced Malfoy unsurprisingly did not.

"Thank you." He bowed, trying to make it look like he wasn't breathing hard, the fight had taken a lot out of him, all his spells had been a lot more powerful than normal "Five points to all those who duelled, and now that I have proved I can duel, lets analyze that duel, the DA members started well by spreading out. As you saw with Mr Crabbe, Mr Goyle and Mr Malfoy as well were nearly all knocked out with one shot. Secondly the DA members proved that they are not perfect either by almost knocked each other out by not being observant of each others positions. The third is a mistake, underestimating your opponent. Mr Longbottom assumed that I was no more powerful than any of you and so assumed that a normal shield would stop my attack, I pushed more power into my attack so that his shield proved useless. Next I want to caution you of the risks in Mr Weasley's next move, as he dodged my spell he dived behind Mr Longbottom so he was protected while he regained his feet, unfortunately doing so means that you can not see what your enemy is doing, you could for example be hit by an attack that the person in front of you dodged but you do not see in time, or alternately what happened in our fight could happen, lastly I want to praise Miss Granger and Miss Lovegood for timing their attacks to coincide with Mr Malfoy's as it decreased my chance of dodging them all."

He paused for a breath before continuing.

"Now for my own tactics, if you noticed I defeated each of my opponents in groups. Firstly I aimed to take out the Slytherin group as they were the least trained and skilled." He could hear several of the other House members trying not to laugh "As was proved by my first spell when I took out two of them within seconds of the beginning of the match, Mr Malfoy proved that he was more skilled than either of his Housemates by avoiding my curse, secondly I turned my attention to the DA male combatants, more skilled than the non-DA members, I attempted to trick them by carefully aiming my spells, so as to force my opponents to dodge towards one another so I could push them both out at once, although this did not work, my powerful spells allowed me to disable them both at the same time. That left the DA ladies and Mr Malfoy, Mr Malfoy, giving his powerful family connections; I guessed that although not strong on duelling strategy that he was skilled in a wider variety of spells as was proved correct. Miss Lovegood and Miss Granger's grades have shown that they were the strongest opponents, both were DA members, both were at the Ministry and both get good grades in class." Hermione blushed at the compliment "Meaning that they would not be the easiest opponents to take out, but thanks to my elimination of my weaker opponents I could now focus on them and sprung my two surprises, I was able to defeat Mr Malfoy and Miss Granger, leaving only Miss Lovegood who I overpowered and thusly won the match. Now I am going to point out that although the two of my final three opponents are highly intelligent it does not always mean that they will be harder to beat, sometimes even the best trained fighters freeze but a good combination of skill and knowledge can be deadly, the worst opponent to have is a clever opponent."

Harry then proceeded with the lesson for the remaining hour and a half of the class, he set up small one on one or two on two duels between the students, gauging the standards of the various students in the class, much to the pleasure of Hermione, Ron and Neville who all defeated Draco multiple times.

What was even better was the look on the faces of the students when at the end of the class he cancelled the spells on himself and revealed himself for who he really was.

Most of them gasped, several exclaimed, a couple fainted and one shouted.

"Potter," shouted Malfoy "What in Merlin's name are you up to, what have you done with the real Professor."

"I am the real Professor." He replied calmly.

"A student can't be a Professor, Potter. Dumbledore will hear of this."

"I already know Mr Malfoy." Replied Dumbledore from the doorway, his face carrying a light smile, a smile Harry knew was forced.

"You're allowing this?" demanded Malfoy.

"I have no choice Mr Malfoy, I saw Professor Radcliffe at Beauxbatons over the summer and asked him to come and work here, not knowing that he was really Lord Potter in disguise, he signed a contract with a legal second identity and therefore I can not remove him from the position without reason."

Most of the class were looking at Harry in surprise.

"If you can find a good reason for me to give up my position please let the Headmaster know but I have shown him my qualifications and you have personally seen my duelling skills, so legally there is nothing you can do."

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:4__th__ September 2001 AD_

_Country:England_

_Location:Unknown_

_Time:Evening_

In a dark room many miles away a man in a black cloak walked into a dark room and dropped to his knees, crawling forward he kissed the robes of the snake like creature that sat before him before standing up.

"My Lord, I have news from Severus Snape and my son."

"Speak." Hissed the creature.

"Potter has tricked Dumbledore into making him a Professor, he is the schools new Duelling Master and according to my son he has developed rather significant skills in the area, he managed to defeat four of those present at the Ministry last year as well as my son and Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle very efficiently."

The snake creature hissed out a short laugh.

"Perhaps your son is not as competent as you always tell me Lucius."

Malfoy flinched before continuing.

"My son was merely surprised My Lord by Potter's vast increase in skill, I assure you My Lord he will prove to be a very effective spy and an excellent Death Eater."

"We shall see Lucius, we shall see. Dismissed."

Lucius bowed low and backed out of the room, as he left, James emerged from the shadows accompanied by Nagini who slithered her way over to her master and coiled herself up by his side.

"What do you make of that?" his Voldemort.

"Young Harry has decided to play with the big boys, after some tutelage from my brother no doubt. He's trying to take control of his own destiny but to what end?"

"Indeed, to what end, this should be interesting."


	65. CH65 The Wonders of the Vault

Chapter 65 – The Wonders of the Vault

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:8__th__ September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – England_

_Location:Hogwarts Express_

_Time:Morning_

A few days later on the way to London.

Professors Dumbledore, Delacour, Fontaine, Tonks, Summers, Lupin and Berio were in a single carriage attached to the Hogwarts Express along with Ginny, the Gryffindor trio, most of the Muggle Defence class and much to Ron's displeasure; Draco.

The main reason for the trip was going to be to allow Adam to visit his vault but then Harry had received letters to attend the will reading of Sirius Black, after Harry had sent his confirmation back to Gringotts, Dumbledore, Remus, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Draco and Tonks all received attendance requests for the will reading. On top of that some of the MD students requested to accompany them so they could purchase more appropriate attire for sparring, the idea spread until almost the whole class was going.

They were all lounging quite comfortably, Hermione and Ginny occupying the window seats starring out into the countryside, Ron was sending Draco (who was opposite him) death glares which Draco was ignoring, next to him was Adam and nearest the door Harry, Fleur, Colette, Tonks and Buffy. Tonks had magically enlarged the compartment to accommodate them all.

The only real movement in the room was the silver disk rotating between Adams fingers.

"If you don't mind me asking?" said Ginny breaking the silence "What exactly are you getting out of your vault? Other than the wand for Prof...for Buffy?"

Adam smiled "You will find out soon enough, it's been a while since I've been to my vault, I had better check if I still have my key." he said fishing through his cloak pockets

"You didn't check?" Draco asked in disbelief.

"Ah...there it is." he said withdrawing a long box (about the size of a case for a pair of glasses) from his cloak.

"How could you not know if you were carrying something that size in your cloak?" Draco asked sceptically.

"This cloak isn't just a cloak, it dimension shifts," he explained, opening up his cloak, everyone leaned closer to get a better look ,the inside was covered with pockets, tags to hang things from, weapons sheaves sown into the fabric for throwing knifes and daggers, you name it and this cloak had it. The strange thing was that all the sheaves and holders appeared empty and flat.

"Blimey." Ron exclaimed "That must weigh a lot when it is full."

"It is full." Replied Adam, withdrawing a curved and highly decorated knife from a sheaf that had been empty until he had clasped his hand round the handle (or where the handle would have been).

"Nice." said Tonks "I heard about a DOM project to do something like that."

Adam replaced the knife in the sheave, as soon as his hand released the handle, it vanished and the pocket flattened

"Why do you have such a large case for such a small key?" asked Harry.

Adam opened the case and held it out for all to see, inside was an image of a large key on a piece of silk padding, before their eyes the key rose out of the silk and appeared as a real object laying on top of the silk, the teeth of the key were highly elaborate and the key itself was highly decorated, the vault must be very old, the key looked like it was from the Middle Ages.

"That is one big key, why do you not have a normal sized one?" Ron asked.

"Like I said it has been a while since I've been there, these keys were once the standard size up until the seventeenth century, this sort of key is only used for top security vaults now, but as I have that type of vault I did not need to change."

The others interest was peaked but they got the feeling that Adam wasn't going to tell them anything else...yet.

They spent the rest of the trip explaining to Buffy the wonders of Diagon Alley and describing what she had not seen when she had been purchasing her work clothes.

They finally arrived in London and made their way to the alley.

After entering the alley Dumbledore gave the students a return time and the group dispersed to go about their business, they were not overly worried about safety as Dumbledore had requested that Madam Bones post Auror's throughout the alley during their visit.

Upon entering Gringotts Buffy caught her first sight of Goblins, she thought they were some of the strangest creatures she had ever seen, not because of their large noses and ears but because of their size, they looked like big House Elves except for the almost permanent scowls.

Adam walked straight to the far end of the room and approached the Head Goblin.

"I wish to make a withdrawal."

"Vault type?" the goblin asked without looking up from his work.

"High Security."

The Goblin looked up, obviously more interested in this uncommon type of withdrawal.

"Vault Number?" the Goblin asked.

"Thirteen."

That got everyone's attention.

"That vault hasn't been opened in over two hundred years," The goblin asked shocked and half expecting it to be a joke "Do you have the key?"

Adam withdrew the key and handed it to the Goblin, who studied it with suspicion and wonder, the Goblin replaced the key in the case and then proceeded to study that in detail, observing the exact way that the key removed itself from the silk, he eventually handed the case back to Adam.

"That seems to be in order, please excuse me I while I obtain transportation." Replied the Goblin as he rushed of to fetch a large cart, the group from Hogwarts were intrigued, the Head Goblin never took people to their vaults, not even for Dumbledore, he usually just checked the key and then designated the job to a Clerk, what surprised most of the party further was that the Goblin had said please which Goblins never do unless they have made a mistake as regards to someone's money...which they also do not do.

They were led down to a cart and proceeded along the tracks for a good ten minutes to reach the vault, the others were watching fascinated, the vaults down here had huge doors and large amounts of key holes on each one, as they proceeded through the tunnels they heard low rumblings in the distance and wondered whether the rumours about dragons guarding the lower vaults were true. Reaching the end of the line the cart rolled to a stop, directly in front of the cart was a massive pair of doors, it was bigger than the entrance to Hogwarts.

"Vault number thirteen." the Head Goblin announced climbing out of the cart, the others following behind him.

As Adam approached the door, the Head Goblin pointed to a particular key hole as this door, like the others they had seen earlier it was peppered with them, Adam looked at the keyhole then seemed to be tracing patterns on the door with his eyes, he appeared to be following a series of instructions to reach the correct keyhole, finally having found it Adam placed the key in the lock and slowly turned, locks crunched and creaked with old age. The door didn't open.

The others exchanged glances but the goblin and Adam appeared to be following further instructions, the Goblin placed his finger inside a keyhole and Adam did the same to another, there was a sound of magical barriers being lowered, the Goblin then withdrew two keys from his robe and handed them both to Adam, Adam studied both keys, appeared to make a decision, then handed one back, they then started counting keyholes again and at the same time placed the keys in another pair of holes, there was another sound of locks moving and a small hatch opened in the door, inside was the strangest key any of the assembled group had ever seen, it looked like two keys meshed together, it had a normal handle and set of teeth but inside the first was another separate free moving key that had a handle and a set of teeth extending out the front and back of the first, the Goblin and Adam both took a hold of the key and placed it in yet another lock turning each part of the key consecutively in opposite directions, puffs of dust shot from the hinges and the door slowly swung open.

"Oh Merlin," Ron exclaimed, the others had been stunned into silence. The vault was as big as any of the Hogwarts classrooms; it was pilled to the sealing with gold and riches of every kind with only a thin isle down the middle to move down, unlike the usual vaults the riches were not stacks of gold coins but objects made of gold ranging from bowls and plates to sceptres and cups.

Adam walked to the back of the room and started studying the back wall.

"What are you looking for?" Hermione asked as the others followed him in, one of the others would have probably asked but they were all to busy starring at the rest of the contents of the vault.

Finding what he was looking for, Adam removing a gold ring (that no one had seen him wearing) from his right hand, it seemed to have a symbol on it but Hermione could not make it out.

He pressed it into a slight depression on the wall and twisted it clockwise half a turn, then rotated it back a full turn, removing it from the depression, the wall began to creak and slowly lowered into the ground, the room on the other side was half as big again, but this time seemed to be filled with more personal items, jewellery (not men's), documents, many elaborate weapons were fixed to the wall, piles of various sizes highly decorative wooden boxes, some were also arranged on tables obviously containing more valuable items, they all seemed to be arranged in some form of order though none of them could decipher it.

* * *

Ginny was overcome with what she saw, it was gob smacking, one table seemed to draw her attention even more than the piles of gold objects in the previous room, on it was a series of crystals all perfectly diamond shaped (though Hermione would have said the Muggle term was called a rhombus) they were perfectly clear, about five centimetres tall, three centimetres in diameter and appeared to glow faintly. They radiated power. 

She moved to pick one up, but someone grabbed her wrist before she made contact with the nearest crystal.

"Trust me; you do not want to touch those." Warned Adam, releasing her wrist and walking back to the small circular table he had been looking at before.

Ginny felt really embarrassed, trying to be ignored she moved over to another raised platform, she examined what lay upon in.

Only one box rested on the table, opening the lid so that it leaned back on its hinges Ginny was able to see its contents.

There were various pieces of jewellery in the box but the one piece that drew her eye rested inside a small material grip in the centre, a beautiful diamond ring. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, it must be worth a fortune, almost on autopilot she picked it up and slid it onto the third finger of her left hand, it fitted perfectly.

For some reason she turned and her eyes met Draco's, she immediately turned away only to find everyone else was staring at her, Ron's look very clearly said 'Put it back'.

Adam's face was sad for an instant but he quickly covered up his expression, the ring must be very important to him.

"I'm...I'm sorry," she said remove it from her finger, dropping it in her haste "Oh God I am so sorry, I...I didn't mean to." she said beginning to panic.

Adam walked over, all eyes followed him as he moved, Ginny stood frozen to the spot as he slowly picked up the ring.

He stared at the ring between his fingers, Ginny was almost terrified to move, what had she done, how could she have been so careless, she shouldn't have been looking through someone else's private things.

Adam then did something very unexpected.

He reached out, took her shaking hand and placed the ring on her palm.

"Keep it, I have no use for it." he said kindly before returning to the table he had been examining.

Ginny was overcome, no one had ever given her something so beautiful or so expensive, she would have said that she couldn't accept it but the look in Adam's eyes before he moved off clearly said it was pointless to argue.

Harry, Hermione, Ron, Buffy, Fleur, Colette and Tonks all moved to examine the ring as Ginny, still in shock returned the ring to her finger; it really was one of the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

Hermione and Ron exchanged a look before quickly turned away when they realised what they were doing to the amusement of Harry and the others.

Dumbledore, unbeknown to the others saw the slight pain on Adam's face as he turned away, that ring was important to him, it really hurt him to give it away, he just hopped Miss Weasley would take care of it, he could tell Adam would be deeply wounded if she lost it.

Adam tapped an area of a circular table and an opening appeared in the side, out of which slid a wand.

"Buffy." he called as she looked up from the ring and moved towards him.

"Your wand." he said removing it and holding it out for her "Willow, fourteen inches, essence of demon." she turned to him shocked at this last statement "It should interact well with you Slayer powers."

Buffy gave the wand a nervous look before carefully picking it off of Adam's palm, as soon as she did the room was an explosion of light and colour, it swirled, twisted and finally dissipated.

"That wand was DEFINITELY meant for you." Hermione contributed.

"Try it," Harry suggested "**Wingardium Leviosa." he pronounced, replicating Hermione's tone perfectly, earning a snort from Ron before both received death glares from Hermione.**

**Buffy turned towards the box Ginny had got the ring from and took a deep breath; she had already cast several spells with Tonks wand so she was not totally new to this.**

**"Wingardium Leviosa." she pronounced rather forcefully.**

**The box flew upwards and collided with the sealing exploded along with all its contents.**

**Adam visibly flinched when the box blew up, for anyone looking closely (in this case only Hermione) they could see that he was shaking slightly.**

**"I'm...Adam, I'm sorry...I...I didn't mean." Buffy stuttered, fingering her new wand like it could explode at any moment.**

**Adam turned to her and said slowly. **

**"Not quite so powerful next time."**

**Hermione withdrew her wand.**

**"Reparo." the fragments on the floor twitched before settling back to the floor "Reparo!"**

"Thank you for trying, but that will not work." Adam commented.

Hermione felt sorry for him, had he not given that ring to Ginny it would have gone up as well.

Buffy looked down at her wand, handling it a bit less cautiously as she turned it over in her hands. The wood was highly decorated, though Buffy didn't think it was for decorative purposes, Dumbledore, Hermione and Colette all moved to examine the wand.

"Fascinating," Dumbledore commented "I presume these runes are to give the wand additional power?"

He was obviously trying to change the subject and thankfully Adam let him.

"Yes, they also help to contain the power at its core and channel it in manageable amounts, you just need to learn how to channel it." he said to Buffy "That is a powerful wand." he turned and walked towards an alter at the back of the room.

"Edra."

The top of the alter slid open and a staff extended out of the hole before floating to Adam's side.

The staff was white, tapering towards the base. At the top it coiled out into a delicate pattern, it then flowed back together to meet at the top, the delicate pattern was gripped around a large clear crystal, it was bigger than those which Ginny had seen earlier which were about five centimetres tall, this was at least fifteen in height, the crystal was visible on six sides between the delicate patterned wood which gripped it.

Adam extended his hand and grasped the staff; it let of a blinding light that lit up the entire room, forcing the others to look away or risk permanent eye damage.

After a minute the light faded until it was safe to see again, when the others finally managed to look they saw Adam looking better than he had in days.

"Wow." Hermione managed to say.

"You can say that again." agreed Colette.

"I want one." Exclaimed Ron.

AUTHOR NOTE 1: Sorry it took so long, the last three weeks have been quite frankly terrible. Works been hectic, my beta's life's been so busy he's realized that he cannot continue to beta for me, my dad's been made redundant and my grandfather has been very bad and has just passed away.

AUTHORS NOTE 2: Is anyone interested in betaing this story for me?


	66. CH66 Will & Testament Of Sirius Black

Chapter 66 – The Surprise Of The Last Will And Testament Of Sirius Black

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:8__th __September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – London_

_Location:Diagon Alley – Gringotts Wizard Bank_

_Time:Afternoon_

As they finished collecting from their various vaults and exited the cart on the Ground Floor the Head Goblin called to Harry.

"Mr Potter?"

"Yes."

"Mr Harry James Potter, son of the late Lily and James Potter who resided at Godrics Hollow?"

"Yes."

"Would you please come into the back room Mr Potter, there is a private matter that needs to be discussed."

"What private matter?"

The Goblin looked around then leaned in and whispered.

"The will reading of the late Sirius Black." Harry visibly flinched at the name "Many of those with you also need to attend as we stated in our summons but most people like to keep their attendance of will readings private."

"We will wait here Arry?" smiled Fleur.

Harry nodded as he, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Draco, Tonks, Remus and Dumbledore followed after the Goblin.

The Head Goblin led the group into a private room, it contained a human sized desk with several chairs lined up in front of it, the room already had several occupants including Mr and Mrs Weasley, the rest of the younger Weasley generation, bar Percy, a short man whom Harry guessed was representing Bellatrix (her criminal record preventing her from attending in person, but someone had to represent her), Minister Fudge and his two Auror guards and lastly two tall and elegant women, one blond and one with black hair and a single blond strand running down the right side of her face, Harry guessed they were Narcissa Malfoy and Andromeda Tonks, his suspicions were confirmed moments later.

"Mother."

"Draco," replied Narcissa, her expression not changing.

"Nymphadora." Smiled her sister.

"Mother." Replied Tonks with a twitch at the use of her given name.

"Ron, Ginny." Beamed Molly.

"Children, Harry, Hermione." Added Arthur.

"Mom, dad." Replied Ginny.

"Mr Weasley." Greeted Harry and Hermione.

"Good summer Harry." Beamed the twins as the various other Weasley's greeted the newcomers until Molly turned to Harry.

"Harry, how could you go and leave the Dursley's like that, we have been worried sick about you, it was extremely rec..."

"Mrs Weasley, please be so kind as to remain quiet." Interrupted Harry, shocking most in the room into silence "You are talking of things you do not understand and despite what you may like to think, you are not my mother or my Guardian and after the arrival of that letter last week I doubt I will ever consider you to be either ever again. I am emancipated, I am aristocracy, I am rich, I can take care or myself and you have no right to lecture me so please remain quiet unless you have something constructive to say."

"Harry how dare y..."

"I asked you to remain silent and as the primary beneficiary of this will reading I can ask you to leave or be removed for all parts of the will that do not involve you."

Molly went to speak again but was stopped by Arthur who seemed to understand Harry a lot better than his wife, he could obviously see that Harry had grown up over the summer and did not need telling off.

Turning around Harry looked to the Black sisters.

"Mrs Tonks, Mrs Malfoy, a pleasure to meet you both."

"Lord Potter." Replied Mrs Malfoy with a short nod, though not making her phrasing sound in anyway unpleasant, she was aware that in public they had to treat each other politely, her acting skills made it impossible to tell if she wanted to curse him or kiss him.

"Remus, it is nice to see you once again."

"Narcissa," Replied the Werewolf "Andromeda."

"Hello Remus. Mr Potter a pleasure to finally meet you," Smiled Mrs Tonks "Please call me Andromeda, my daughter talks of you often."

"Only if you call me Harry." He smiled back before his expression turned series as he looked at Fudge "Minister, why are you here?"

"Not that it is any business of yours Harry, but I am here for the will reading." Replied the Minister forcefully, completely certain of his own superiority "As a former criminal, as the will is that of a Major British House and as several Major British Houses stand to inherit it is only right that there should be a Ministry representative here."

"There are already two in this room Minister."

"Ah, but they are beneficiaries Harry." Returned Fudge "An impartially observer is needed."

Harry turned to the Goblin.

"Is the Minister or the Ministry a beneficiary of the will?"

"No Mr Potter." Replied the Goblin sending a toothy grin at him as he replied, realising what was about to happen "Neither is there any rule, law, tradition or custom that states that a Ministry representative must be present."

Harry turned back to Fudge.

"Minister as the primary beneficiary I ask you to leave."

"What, now see here Harry..."

"I have the right to ask you to leave and I just did, please leave Minister. If I have to ask you a third time the Goblins are obliged to remove you by force."

"Now Harry, let us be reasonable."

"Minister I demand that you vacate this room immediately." said Harry finally, turning away from the Minister.

As he spoke the door opened and two Goblin guards walked in and took the Minister by his coat, them being unable to reach his arms.

The Minister turned to his Aurors.

"Well don't just stand there, do something."

"He is entitled to ask you to leave Minister," replied the older of the two Aurors, he was obviously not a fan of the Minister and was well acquainted with the law "As you are only being removed from the room there is absolutely nothing we can legally do."

The Minister wore a look that said he was going to get back at the Auror for that.

"Harry you will regret this." Called the Minister as he was escorted out, followed by his guards, the door shutting behind him.

"That was thoroughly enjoyable." Commented Harry as almost everyone in the room grinned or smiled at the Minister's plight. Narcissa retained her look but did for a second look amused, only Dumbledore looked on worriedly, the Minister would try to make Harry pay for that and the embarrassment from the Great Hall.

Clearing his throat, the Goblin behind the desk prepared to began.

"This is the reading of the last will and testament of Sirius Black, there are two major and many minor beneficiaries to the will, I shall start with the minor." The Goblin turned to Bellatrix's lawyer "Firstly as per Wizarding law the deceased gives the minimum possible amount to his cousin Bellatrix Lestrange, one galleon, one sickle and one knut, thus concludes Bellatrix Lestrange's inheritance."

Bellatrix's lawyer stood and nodded before leaving the room, once the door had closed the Goblin continued.

"Secondly the deceased gives to Andromeda Tonks and her daughter whose name the deceased has stated that I am to read out in her presence, Nymphadora Tonks,"

Tonks growled at Sirius's sense of humour, while others covered up smiles.

"Are each to receive a million galleons from the Black Vaults, as well as certain labelled jewellery from aforementioned vault. Additional jewellery also goes to Narcissa Malfoy along with the following message 'Come back to the light Cissa'."

Mrs Malfoy flinched slightly as the message was read out but regained her composure very quickly.

"If Narcissa Malfoy 'Comes back to the light' to the satisfaction of her sister Andromeda then she is two receive an additional one million galleons. The son of Narcissa Malfoy; Draco Malfoy is to receive the same amount as his aunt Bellatrix."

Draco grumbled under his breath but said nothing as the Goblin continued.

"Bill, Charlie, Arthur and Molly Weasley each get half a million galleons. Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley and Ginny Weasley each get three quarters of a million galleons, in addition Hermione Granger gets an additional ten thousand galleons which can, and I quote 'Only be used on fiction related literature or on items that Ron Weasley, Harry Potter or Ginny Weasley consider to be non-educational'."

Ron, Harry and Ginny exchanged grins at Hermione's worried look.

"Once at least five percent of said ten thousand galleons has been spent and enjoyed to aforementioned judges satisfaction, Hermione Granger is to have free access to the entire Black family library at all Black properties throughout the United Kingdom."

Hermione's jaw almost hit the floor in shock.

"There is an attached comment, 'And if that does not convince Hermione to put down her books for a bit, nothing will'." Several of the rooms inhabitants chuckled at the comment as the Goblin turned to the twins "Fred and George Weasley are each to receive half a million galleons as well as two million for their company and all my old prank books."

The twins saluted their fellow prankster before grinning widely at the thought of all the material in the books.

"Albus Dumbledore is to receive a total of two million galleons for what ever 'Orderly' activities he sees fit. An extra million is to go to Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry to either get qualified staff hired to train the pupils in defence or for whatever other reason Dumbledore sees fit. This ends the Minor beneficiaries list."

Harry gulped if millions of galleons counted as minor, what on earth counted as major, he knew the Black family was very old but how much money could they actually have.

"Half of the Black family fortuned is to go to Remus Lupin; at least ten thousand galleons of which is to go on new clothes only, of which ten percent has to be spent within the next two months or the entire inheritance will all be withheld until said money is spent, there is an attached comment, 'Take care of yourself Mooney'."

Remus bowed his head as the Goblin finished reading out his section of the will.

"Lastly, everything else goes to Sirius Black's godson Harry James Potter, including the rest of the Black fortune, the various properties, title and shares."

Harry's chin hit the floor.

"Thus concludes the will of Sirius Black, there is an ending statement. 'Mischief Managed'."

No one was able to say anything in the silence that followed.

Rolling up the document the Goblin continued.

"I will be happy to explain any parts of the will that are not understood or go into greater detail as regards parts of the will you wish to hear again, but if you have no questions you may now depart."

Narcissa stood and turned to Harry.

"A pleasure to meet you Lord Potter. Professor Dumbledore, Remus, sister, Draco." with that she turned and seemed to glide out of the room.

Andromeda also stood.

"I hope to see you again soon Harry. Nymphadora, Remus, Dumbledore." She smiled before heading out of the room with the same smoothness and sophistication as her sister.

"I am guessing you have questions Mr Potter." Said the Goblin.

Harry nodded.

"In estates, you receive the Black London residence which has a concealed location; do you know the address or know of someone who does?"

He nodded, still shocked by what he had heard turning to Dumbledore "e said "You can continue to use it for...'recreational' purposes Professor."

"Thank you My Lord." the Headmaster smiled, pleased that Harry didn't totally hate him, or at least not enough to cause disruption to Order business.

Harry turned back to the Goblin.

"Is that everything?"

"Not quite Mr Potter, we also need to discuss the ownership of Castle Black."

"Castle Black!" Harry exclaimed straightening up in his chair.

From the looks of those in the room, including Dumbledore but not, surprisingly, Tonks and Remus no one else was aware of its existence.

"Sirius had a castle?"

"Officially Mr Potter no, but before I continue I must ask everyone else to leave the room as what I am about to tell you is confidential."

The others nodded before reluctantly filtering out, confusingly though Tonks sent him an apprehensive look as she went, once when they were alone the Goblin continued.

"Before I speak about the confidential matter Viscount I have your new House Ring for you." Explained the Goblin, reaching into his pocket and withdrawing said ring.

Taking it out of the Goblins hands, Harry examined the ring; unlike his own house ring the main band was a dull grey colour so Harry wasn't sure of the metal, the face had a black background with the Black family crest highlighted in silver.

"In addition Mr Potter we found this in your family faults," explained the Goblin, handing him another ring.

Taking it as well Harry examined it curiously, having no idea what house the ring could belong to, like the Potter Ring was a gold band but on top was a red background with a gold lion atop it, the eye of the lion was a tiny ruby.

"The Gryffindor Crest?" asked Harry.

"As the direct Gryffindor line is now extinct and you are the nearest member of the extended family, you now own this ring that represents their seat on the Wizengamot, meaning you now control the Potter, Black and Gryffindor seats."

Harry nodded before looking at his hands and wondering which fingers to use for these two rings.

"House Rings can time share Viscount, slide them on top of your Potter Ring, you will then be able to will which if any are visible."

Nodding slid the other rings onto his finger alongside his own House Ring and watched as they slid into each other before his Potter Ring returned to the forefront.

"Now for the confidential matter." Began the Goblin "As I am sure you are aware, as a Major British House the Black family has a different set of rules governing it, including laws regarding the imprisonment of criminals..."

Harry literally growled at his use of the word.

"Or suspected criminals." the Goblin added hastily "When a member of a Major House is arrested, any property worth over a certain amount is confiscated until the suspect is proven innocent or otherwise, if innocent the property is returned to them, but if the suspect is found guilty then the estate or properties are permanently removed from their possession and they would have been passed onto the nearest living relative. In the case of Sirius Black, as both his parents and brother are dead they could not take possession of the estate, which meant that the castle would be passed onto the nearest living relative, which in this case was one of the three Black sisters now known as Narcissa Black Malfoy, Bellatrix Black Lestrange and Andromeda Black Tonks."

"In the Wizarding world among Major Houses, males always come first and in age order, but women are not given the same priority by age as men are. Under the laws governing the Major British Houses in an ownership situations where equal claims for siblings are involved, the claims of those who already have sizable estates would come second to those who do not. Bellatrix Black Lestrange already had a sizable estate until she was convicted of being a Death Eater so her estate was transferred to Narcissa Black Malfoy's ownership."

"Mrs Malfoy, owning the Lestrange estate and living on another large estate that has since become hers as well since her husband's conviction, results in her claim also being reduced. This leaves Andromeda Black Tonks, she has no estate of her own other than a small Muggle house in Central London. Her husband had a large house of his own but this did not fall under the laws of the Wizarding World as he owned the mansion not her and it would revert, in the event of his death, which has since occurred, to his Muggle relatives. Thusly she has been in possession of the castle since his incarceration, but since Sirius Black has now been proved innocent, his will with the recent alterations made last year have now been reinstated and the estate now belongs to you."

The Goblin paused to take a breath.

"What I am about to tell you is the reason why I asked the room to be emptied. Although Mrs Tonks had ownership of the castle, she never once set foot in it, which has caused her and her daughter problems because of technicalities regarding Mr Tonks will. On Mr Tonks death all his monetary worth that were held my Muggle banks reverted back to his Muggle relatives whom Mrs Tonks and her daughter are not on good terms with. Communication with Miss Tonks prior to this will reading informed me that since her father's death they have been in a very bad situation as regards money, for five years now she and her mother have remained at the small London House that they own, but living there has become increasingly difficult as regards finances."

"Why did they not simply move into the castle?" asked Harry

"I asked the same question and was informed that Mrs Tonks believed her cousin to be innocent and that when he was proved as such he would want his property returned to him. From what Miss Tonks told me her financial situation is now desperate and they have recently been evicted from the London House and are now renting a small flat barely big enough for both of them. Normally this situation would have forced Mrs Tonks to use the castle but you are now the owner."

The Goblin stopped for another breath.

"Miss Tonks asked me to ask you if, with your permission of course, if she and Mrs Tonks could move, temporarily at least, into Castle Black, as unfortunately the money that Sirius Black left her and her mother needs to go to pay off several large loans with us that her mother took out for the upkeep of their London residence and to pay of several debts that her father had in the Wizarding World which unfortunately did not revert to his Muggle relatives. Normally we would not loan so much to one person but as we knew that eventually the Black fortune and the loans would come to the same person they would eventually be paid off. Paying back the debts will almost completely exhaust the inheritance of both of the ladies and only Miss Tonks wages have been keeping them housed and any repayment of the loans possible up until this point. Miss Tonks knows her mother would be too proud to ask for help and she would not want her daughter to ask either, thusly she asked me to ask you in her place and if you agree, could you arrange it so that you offer the family castle to her as a place to stay as they are some of Mr Blacks last relatives, that way her mother would never know that she asked."

Harry nodded to the Goblin immediately; if Tonks and her mother needed help then they would have it.

"They can move in immediately."

The Goblin nodded before continuing on another subject.

"In addition to the properties mentioned already the Black family has a large number of properties which are permanently rented out all over Wizarding Britain, in addition there are a large number of shares in many companies, almost all of which were acquired a long very long time ago and are now worth an awfully large amount of money."

"How...how much are the shares worth?" Harry asked tentatively as he was in shock at most of what he was hearing.

"On average around..." The Goblin began examining a second sheet of parchment "Seven million galleons per annum."

You could have heard a pin drop in the silence that followed.

"Se...se...seven...million...galleons per year?" Harry stuttered.

"Indeed, some of theses shares were bought centuries ago and are thusly worth a very large amount now. Added to the shares you already own from your parents, the rents you receive and the interest on all the above you have a total income of just over ten million galleons per annum."

"How much!" Harry exclaimed, he had never got around to examining his parents finances so the revelation was quiet a surprise.

Harry's mind was in shock, trying to take in all he was hearing, he would never be able to spend it all, not on his own.

In that moment an idea occurred to Harry.

"Can I give the shares to others?" he asked.

"Yes Viscount." Nodded the Goblin.

"Ok then, give Nymphadora and her mother each the number of shares currently closest in value to half a million galleons, I would also like to create accounts for and transfer three million galleons cash as well as a quarter of a millions worth of share each to Miss. Hermione Granger, Mr. Ronald Weasley, Miss Ginny Weasley, Colette Fontaine, she wont need an account setting up." Harry paused for a moment before adding "And Miss. Buffy Summers. In addition can you transfer two million galleons into the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes account. All expenses and opening costs coming from my account."

"Certainly Viscount," the Goblin said jotting down the names and amounts, he looked positively ecstatic at the prospect of transferring all that money "The people in question will have to sign to agree to the transfers, is there anything else sir?"

Harry thought for a minute.

"Yes, I would like a card and pouch for all the people who are getting an annual percentage of the shares and lastly I want Fleur Delacour to have complete access to my vaults with all the rights and privileges I have."

The Goblin looked like Christmas had come early "Excellent I will get on that right away Viscount, after you have signed to agree to the transfers could you sent those who are outside in so they can sign for the transfers as well as the acceptance of their money bags and cards."

Harry signed quickly but paused before he reached the door.

"I know Gringotts has been managing my shares for years now, how much do I need to pay for you to continue to do so?"

The Goblin smiled.

"If anyone else said that Viscount, I would be shocked, you do not have to pay us anything extra as we arrange a percentage of the profits as payment, that way we can guarantee to you that we want your shares to be profitable, with your permission we will increase our control over your shares so that we can buy and sell in such a way as to make you as much money as possible."

"Certainly, I haven't got a clue about shares, so I will leave it to the Professionals."

"Thank you Viscount, oh, one last thing, I was negligent, I should have mentioned this earlier, the location of Castle Black. Now that you are the owner, no one who knew of the castles location will remember. The castle itself is thousands of years old and was originally built by the first Black's, as such the protections surrounding it are strong and ancient. As an important customer to Gringotts and given the magical leanings of the Black family as a whole, we have already sent Goblins to the Castle to remove any dangerous charms protecting the estate."

The Goblin withdrew a scroll of parchment from his coat and handed it to Harry.

Unrolling the parchment, Harry began to read:

_Harry James Potter, you are the only person able to read the wording on this parchment._

_Castle Black, now the property of Harry James Potter can be found on a small concealed island ten miles of the North West coast of Scotland._

_Harry James Potter, Master of Castle Black can reach the Castle by Fireplace by following the usual Fire system and saying the words._

"_I Harry James Potter, Master of Castle Black demand admittance to my estate."_

_Doing so will allow anyone else to Floo to the Castle from said Fireplace for exactly three minutes._

_Alternatively Harry James Potter can say the words above then attempt to Apparate to any location; if Apparating you can take others with you by ensuring that they have skin contact with you when you say the above words._

_Once there, activate the main fireplace inside and say a password in any language of you're choosing._

_Upon doing this, you can permit anyone to see Castle Black by reading the words below to the person in question; this will allow them to travel there with you._

"_I Harry James Potter, Master of Castle Black grant admittance to (insert name/names) to my residence on Black Island."_

_To allow them independent travel simply say their name followed by the password in the language chosen and the person will be able to travel to the location by following the usual fireplace procedure and saying the password, the password must also be said before taking a portkey in or when flying or sailing up to the island._

Knowledge of the password also allows the use of magic on the island by the person in question, everyone who hears the password will hear something different so that only they will be able to get in using the password they heard and they will not be able to tell others the password accurately.

_The password can be changed by Harry James Potter activating the main fireplace at Castle Black and saying the following._

"_I Harry James Potter change the password of my residence to (insert new password)"_

_The password will automatically be changed in the minds of all who know it, to disallow admission to a person/persons add_

"…_Disallow admittance to (insert name/names)"_

_This will make the person/persons in question forget the password._

_Harry James Potter congratulations on receiving ownership of Castle Black._

Harry rolled the parchment back up before turning back to the Goblin.

"I understand Goblins are very good at warding, how much would it cost me to ward Godrics Hollow, the Black House in London, Potter Estate and Castle Black?"

"That would depend on what strength of wards you wanted."

"The strongest possible, the full works."

"An awful lot," replied the Goblin, before bringing his left into view, a Bronze Alliance ring was on his third finger "But in light of other business between the Goblins and yourself, will do it for free."

Harry leaned back in shock.

"Are you sure, if it's going to cost that much..."

"The money we have received from the Potter and Black shares over the years easily make up the cost."

"Oh, ok then." Nodded Harry "I think that's everything except for accepting my friends at Castle Black and transferring the money and shares."

"If you wish to grant them access now, I will vacate the room." Explained the Goblin getting down from his desk.

The pair walked out of the door to where everyone else was waiting.

"Fleur, Colette, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Buffy, Tonks, Remus, Adam, Fred and George, can you join me inside for a minute?"

Those mentioned looked at him confused but walked back into the room, he sent Tonks a short nod as she walked past him which earned him a large beaming smile, he could tell she was trying very hard not to hug him hard in thanks.

When the door closed Harry turned to the group.

"I Harry James Potter Master of Castle Black grant admittance to Fleur Delacour, Colette Fontaine, Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley, Ginevra Weasley, Fredric Weasley, George Weasley, Buffy Summers, Nymphadora Tonks, Remus Lupin and Adam Berio-Megiltura to my residence on Black Island."

There was a short flash and a beam of magic flew from Harry and passed through all those whose names Harry had said.

"I am honoured Harry." Bowed Adam.

"Err...Harry," Ron asked looking at his midsection where the beam of light had connected "What was that?"

"That was me allowing all of you to see Castle Black and as soon as I sort out a password you will be able to go there too, remind me to add Neville, Luna and Andromeda later, there are a few documents that all of you except Remus and Adam need also to sign."

He did not give them the chance to ask questions before he walked to the door and the goblin re-entered.

After about thirty seconds the twins were heard shouting.

"BLOODY HELL."

Followed by a short thud.

A few more seconds passed before a shocked looking Buffy poked her head round the door.

"What was the noise Professor?" asked Dumbledore.

"That was Ron passing out."

Draco couldn't help but snort, but what was stranger for those around them was that Harry couldn't help but snort with him.

After a minute the group emerged, Ron looked like he was trying to stop himself from passing out again, Ginny and Buffy just looked plain shocked, but Hermione looked positively fuming.

"Harry...have you gone completely insane...so far today you have given away nineteen million galleons and over two million a year average income...WHY?"

"Because I can," Harry answered "Because it means instead of ruining lives maybe I can help someone for once, think about it Hermione, I have only spent a fraction of what's in my vault and if I have had around ten million galleons a year coming in to the Black and Potter vaults, that's at least one hundred and fifty million galleons I've got stored so far, not including what my parents stored during their lives."

Hermione wanted to complain but Harry continued.

"Hermione, take the money I don't need it and by the time we leave school you will have received an additional one million galleons, which is easily enough to get yourself a house, which is something else I now have too many of, Hermione please accept, it take it as an early Christmas present or something, please take it...for me."

Hermione sighed and nodded.

"Ok Harry we'll take it."

AUTHORS NOTE 1: Firstly, Sorry this one took so long but my email has been a bit hazy of late not to mention I am trying to read Book 7 at the moment. This chapter I am currently not to happy with, as I said above my emails been a bit dodgy and I have been having trouble contacting those people who volunteered to beta for me, but I thought you deserved an update so I will post this now and once I get in contact with my new beta's I will update this chapter ok.

AUTHOR NOTE 2: I hope the three people who volunteered to beta for me are reading this; I won't say their names as I know at least one wanted to remain anonymous, I managed to contact one of you outside of the sites this story is posted on but another (the one who wants to remain anonymous) when I tried to contact them, the email bounced so can I ask all free of you to contact me on the below address so we can talk:

adamjamestait (at) hot mail (dot) co (dot) uk

I know some sites don't let you post email addresses so it's easier this way, if this does not work, leave a review and I will respond when I post the next chapter.


	67. CH67 Demon On A Train

Chapter 67 – Demon On A Train

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:8__th __September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – England_

_Location:Hogwarts Express _

_Time:Early Evening_

On the Hogwarts Express on the way back to Hogwarts.

Most of the students were taking full advantage of the trip, showing off their new clothes or whatever else they had bought in the Alley when they were supposed to be buying clothes.

Adam had declined to travel on the train and had opted to fly back as a falcon, he had said:

"It has been too long since I have flown over the British Countryside."

Dumbledore and the other professors were in a compartment near the front of the train while Buffy, Harry, Fleur, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Colette, Neville and Luna were sitting in a compartment at the back, discussing Harry's new found wealth much to Harry's annoyance.

"Can't we talk about something more interesting than my bank balance?" pleaded Harry, as the train experienced a slight bump "Anything else will do. Skiing, chocolate, the fact that Luna and Ginny are both so good at the subject that they are in the sixth years duelling class, anything."

"Ok then," replied Colette, with a grin that could rival anything the twins could have worn "Your manhood."

There were several speaks and coughs when she said this, not to mention a couple of laughs from Fleur and Luna.

Harry groaned and rolled his head back.

"Oh, I walked straight into that one."

"Yes you did," grinned Colette "But as we are on the subject Fleur, just how bi..."

"What is it?" asked Hermione as Colette trailed off, her expression one of thought.

"Is it just me or are we slowing down?"

The others turned to the windows on each side of the carriage and looked out at the side of the viaduct they were travelling over.

"Yes we are," agreed Harry, reaching into his robe and withdrawing his wand, the others mirroring his movements as he opened the compartment door and stepped out into the corridor. Further up the carriage Harry could see Tonks and Remus emerge from the end carriage, their own wands in their hands.

"What's going on?" Harry asked.

"We've been disconnected from the engine." replied Tonks as other students started stepping out of their own compartments "It's a good bet that the driver does not even know we have been left behind."

"Everyone draw you wands," ordered Dumbledore as he followed Remus and Tonks out of the end compartment "Be ready for anything, Nymphadora, Fleur, Buffy and Harry watch the back of the train, Remus, Colette and myself will watch the front, everyone else watch our sides, do NOT leave the carriage."

Just as the groups headed towards their respective guard posts the carriage under went an enormous jolt, sending everyone to the floor.

Another jolt followed the first; except this one resulted in the back of the carriage being torn off of its wheels, dropping the carriage directly onto the tracks, buckling the carriage so that the side were pushed out at the top, ripping the ceiling and the back of the carriage open.

"Quickly!" called Dumbledore as everyone clambered to their feet.

Harry and Buffy were the first to reach the back of the train, jumping over the last section of broken flooring where the walls had split open.

Ducking behind the remains of the carriages door, they looked through the cracked glass of the window at what ever was attacking them.

Outside was a creature neither of them had ever seen before.

Crouched on the ground about five meters away from the remains of the door was a horrific creature, it looked reptilian in nature, had a neck longer than that of a man with several horns pointing backwards off of its head. It had bat like wings and a long thin tail with a single large curved spike on the end. It was wearing what appeared to be metal armour over its torso, arms and legs, if they had had to guess they would have said that the armour was actually a natural part of its body. In its chest armour were two slots holding daggers. It had talon like hands and each talon was at least ten centimetres long.

"What on earth is it?" asked Harry.

"Why are you asking me?" asked Buffy.

"You know demons, I don't.**"** replied Harry, aiming his wand at the creature as Fleur and Tonks came up beside them.

"Well I have never seen anything like that before." replied Buffy, drawing her own wand as she remembered that she had one.

The creature snarled and bounded towards them talons and long fangs bared.

"Shoot it!!" called Buffy as she realised she didn't have a clue what to do with her wand to attack something like that and if she tried to burn it she would probably incinerate them all.

Harry and the others fired curses through the gaps in the wall but the beasts effortlessly jumped sideways to avoid the spells before lunging again.

"Back," he shouted pushing the girls away from the end of the carriage as the beast flattened the remains of the door against the floor, trapping Harry underneath it.

"Arry!" cried Fleur as the creature began prowling over the door, making Harry grunt at the weight of the creature and the door on top of him.

Buffy saw Tonks flick her wand in the direction of the first three compartments, making the doors slam shut, protecting those inside. She saw Hermione, Ron and others she did not know trying to open the compartments to come to their aid, but what ever the Auror had done to the doors had sealed them tight.

She saw a light appear to her side and turned towards it.

In Fleur's hand was a ball of fire illuminating the face of the angry matedVeela.

Jerking her hand forward she launched the ball of fire at the beast.

The creature reared up onto its back legs, causing the blast to impact harmlessly against its chest armour.

"Get Arry." called Fleur as she started launching more fireballs at the creature, changing the aim of her attack each time to prevent the creature from dodging them all.

The creature was hit several times, burning the bits of reptilian skin that were not covered by the armour, this only seemed to enrage the creature as it doubled back on itself and jumped out of the carriage and leapt upwards.

"It's on the roof." called Tonks to the rest of the carriage as Buffy and Fleur ran towards where Harry was forcing the remains of the door off of his back. Helping him to his feet they saw that his back had several cuts in it where the creature's claws had gone straight through the door.

"Arry, are you alright?"

"I've been better, but I've also been a lot worse." he grunted, shrugging out of their hands. Retrieving his wand he unsealed the compartment doors.

Hermione and Ron ran straight to him.

"Harry, are you..."

"Yes, I'm fine, but..."

He stopped as a coldness swept over the carriage.

"Dementors." hissed Harry "Patronus charms, quic..."

He was interrupted by the sound of breaking glass.

* * *

Turning Buffy saw the beast flying towards Fleur and herself through the remains of one of the windows. 

There was a huge thud as the pair were slammed into the floor, pinned as the creature towering over them, its claws digging into their shoulders and its huge teeth bared mere inches from their faces.

Buffy saw Fleur raise her free hand to the creatures neck just above the metal armour and create a fireball directly onto the beasts skin, making it howl with rage.

Managing to reach down Buffy was able to grab the thin knife out of her right boot and plunge it into the creature's neck making it rear back in pain.

The wound should have killed it, as should the various spells that had been pounding into the creatures' side.

She didn't get the chance to strike again as the creature was rammed from the side by something with hooves and antlers, throwing it off them.

Spinning to her feet she turned to see the stag get grabbed around the neck by the creature and dragging to the floor, plunging its teeth into the deer's soft flesh.

"Where did Bambi come from?" she asked as Fleur got to her feet beside her, her silhouette illuminated by the rapidly disappearing sun and the bright white light of the silver animals that the students and teachers were casting around the carriage, warding off whatever the 'Dementors' were.

"It's Arry." explained Fleur anxiously as she tried to aim a spell at the creature without risk of hitting her mate, an impossible challenge as the pair were rolling and scrapping across the floor and the walls.

Tooth and antler, hoof and claw, they struggled, smashing through the door of a compartment and rolling inside.

Running to the door Buffy, Fleur, Tonks, Hermione and Ron watched as Neville and the other students in that compartment had to jump onto their seats to get out of the way of the animals that were battling in front of them.

Harry was badly injured, he had deep puncture marks in his neck and many more minor injuries along the length of his body, if it had not been for his large antlers getting in the beasts way he would almost certainly be dead already.

Hermione fired a powerful stunning spell at the creature, thinking it would not hurt Harry if she missed, but the creature moved at just the wrong moment that put one of its bits of armour in the spells path, reflecting the stunner back towards the compartment door, knocking Ron unconscious.

Spinning on its attackers the creature looked over its shoulder before sweeping its long tail in their direction, throwing the four of them backwards into the other wall of the carriage.

Buffy heard a cry of pain as they attempted to get back to their feet. Turning Buffy saw that Fleur's working hand was pressed tightly against a large red stain on her dress where the creatures' tail spike had impaled her, leaving a large wound on her side.

Tonks immediately moved to the French woman's side and began casting charms on her.

"Save...Arry..." gasped Fleur before she was rendered unconscious.

Turning back to the compartment they were just in time to see the beast with Harry's neck gripped between his teeth, jump out through the window.

"Harry!" she shouted as she and the others ran to the window in time to see the beast jump up onto the viaducts wall.

Buffy raised her wand towards the creature.

"No, don't." warned Neville "You might hit Harry."

They never got the chance to say more as they saw Harry kick out, his hind leg smashing straight into the leg of the beast.

The creature fell, its body dropping, over the edge of the viaduct, its claws digging deeply into the stonework to prevent itself from falling.

Buffy and the others watched horrified as Harry weakly tried to pull his blood stained neck out of the slipping creature's jaws.

There was a crack as the stone beneath the pair gave way, falling into the deep valley forest below.

"Harry!!" cried Hermione as the pair dropped out of sight. Hermione, Neville and Buffy jumped out through the shattered window, completely ignoring the compartment door as they ran to the broken wall.

Buffy couldn't believe it, he couldn't be dead, he couldn't be, not after all he had done and got away with over the years.

She was barely aware of the chill around her intensifying before Neville cast another silver creature towards a black shape approaching them.

"We need to get back inside!" called Neville giving Buffy and Hermione a tug as he tried to cast more charms, exhaustion clearly evident on his face from the repeated casting.

Coming back to herself she helped Neville pull a crying Hermione back into the carriage. Just as they slammed the door shut they heard a scratching sound of metal on stone before a clawed talon reached up on top of the wall.

"Why won't this thing die." she exclaimed, turning her dagger around to hold it by the blade before throwing it at the beast.

The creature launched itself up and over the wall, the blade tearing through the wing it had just extended, sending it crashing into the side of the carriage, the students in the compartment it collided with jumping backwards as the glass cracked where it impacted.

Shaking itself as it regained its feet, the creature stood back away from the carriage and jumped in through the cracked window, showering the students inside with shards of glass.

"Quickly!" she called heading into the carriage and down towards the invaded compartment.

"We will handle this." came Dumbledore's voice as he and Remus emerged from the end of the train "Stop the Dementors, Colette can't hold them for long."

Nodding the groups moved past each other as the trio headed for the front of the train.

As they opened the door of the train Buffy saw three cloaked shapes hanging inches from the unconscious and very white face of Colette, it looked like they were about to try to kiss her.

With a yell and a grunt Buffy launched herself at the creatures, kicking two away and tackling the third, her very blood seeming to freeze as she made contact, all her worst memories rising to the surface of her mind as the pair rolled off the end of the carriage and landed hard on the loose stones below.

Buffy grunted in pain before kicking the thing off her and jumping back onto the end of the carriage, trying to overcome the chill that surrounded the creature.

She felt instantly better as she moved away and got into a fighting stance. As she prepared to defend herself the other two creatures and an additional five began to float down and around the carriage towards them.

Throwing one of her spare knives at the nearest, the blade imbedded up to the hilt, not even phasing the creature.

"How do we get rid of these things?" she asked, drawing another knife.

Hermione and Neville both shouted out a spell in Latin, thrusting their fury at what had happened to Harry into their spells, producing the same white animals that she had seen from the other students.

Charging the creature, the spells knocked them away from them, Hermione did not give them a chance to recover as their spells circled back around for another attack, aiming her wand she muttered another spell, the tip of her wand instantly became a flame thrower as the air in front of them was filled with fire.

Screeches could be heard from the other side of the wall of flame.

As the flame stopped the three saw the...'Dementors', she thought they were called, flailing around trying to put themselves out, but more of the creatures were rising up the sides of the bridge, to replace their injured comrades.

Amongst the sea of black heading their way Buffy thought she saw something silhouetted against the moon.

"What is that?" she asked in between the others curses.

The students glanced quickly up at the moon; in front of it seemed to be some sort of snake flying through the sky...and getting bigger.

They didn't have time to ponder this as a growl emanated from behind them. Turning they saw that the corridor was full of Dementors, the beast itself was in front of them, crouched low on the ground. Many cuts and burns adorned its skin and its wings had been shredded, but it was still fighting.

The creature growled and rose up on its hind legs. Standing a good six and a half feet tall, it balanced itself with its tail while withdrawing both knives from their sheaves, holding them menacingly in front of them.

Further down the corridor they could see Tonks, Dumbledore and many of the others pinned down by the endless stream of Dementors. Fleur and several students were lying on the floor shaking but the Dementors seemed to be ignoring them, focusing most of their attention on the Professors and DA members.

The beast growled some sort of language, making the Dementors in front of the three stop. Realising the Dementors were not going to attack they turned their full attention to the beast, aiming their weapons at it.

They never got the chance to fire as a screech from the Dementors behind them drew everyone and everything's attention.

Turning to the sound they had to dive to the side as something very long thrust itself through the space they had previously been occupying. Everyone was knocked to the floor as the thing bashed its way down the corridor, breaking all the windows and smashing the walls as it went.

By the time Buffy and the other Hogwarts occupants managed to regain their feet all but a couple of Dementors, who were also regaining their feet (if they have them) were now gone from the carriage.

With a running kick Buffy knocked both the remaining Dementors out through the broken remains of the windows before the students spells drove them away, leaving the students and teachers to move towards the sounds of a fight outside the train.

Looking out of the back of the carriage they could see the new creature, what ever it was, in a stand off with Harry's murderer.

The creature was long and thin, between thirty and forty feet in length, though at the shoulder it was only around five foot tall, with a long already badly injured neck that was holding the head two feet higher than the body's maximum height. Its tail made up over half of the creatures length and was held curved backwards, ready to strike should the beast get too close. The head of the new creature was long, pointed and appeared mammalian; it was covered in the same light blue fur that covered the rest of the body, except for its spine which like its large fluffy tail and a few smooth tufts on the creature's chest and knees was covered in longer dark fur. Two extremely long whiskers extended from the creatures muzzle and seemed to float beside its body either by the slight wind or some unknown magic. A vicious set of teeth were bared in its mouth and two large thick horns extended out the back of its head, making for a most impressive sight as the two creatures circled each other with the Dementors surrounding them, keeping their distance from the creature, not sure what it was or what its abilities were.

"What on Earth is that?" asked Buffy.

"I haven't a clue." Replied Neville "It's nothing I have ever heard of. It's not one of those demons you were talking about is it?"

"Not one that I know," replied Buffy "And it's a bit too furry to be a pure demon."

"Whatever it is," said Dumbledore, coming up beside them "It's creating a distraction. Let's take advantage of it. Revive and heal everyone you can while I get this carriage mobile." he commanded jumping down from the back of the carriage and aiming his wand at the rear set of wheels further down the track.

The rest of the students and teachers began doing as commanded except Hermione who stood watching the face off, wanting to see the new creature (which she decided would best be described as a Chinese Dragon) inflict pain on the thing that had murdered her best friend.

With a snarl the beast lunged, throwing itself towards the dragon, extending its wings so as to plunge the claws on the leading edge into the creature's skin.

The dragon swung its tail, colliding hard enough to break bones and sending the beast tumbling to the ground. Jumping at the beast the dragon grabbed the its neck with its large jaws before curling its tube like body around it like a snake. Now the beast's legs were pinned to its sides, but unfortunately its tail was not.

The beast threw its tail forward, plunging the long spike on the end into the already injured neck of the dragon. Releasing the beast's neck the dragon howled out in pain, giving the beast a chance to bite into one of the coils surrounding it. Fortunately it never got a chance to do more damage as the infuriated dragon clamped its larger head around that of the beast and gave a sharp jerk

A loud crack emanated from the beast's neck as it was snapped by the dragon's immense strength.

Uncurling itself the dragon turned to the surrounding Dementors and roared. Whilst it was not as deep as the roar of a normal dragon, the Dementors got the message and turned tail and fled.

Waiting a few seconds the creature let its body drop to the floor, breathing heavily.

Hermione jumped down from the carriage to help the creature but never got the chance as the dragon shrunk into the form of her masked saviour, blood covering his neck.

"You!" she asked going to his side as he heaved himself to his feet.

"I'm fine," he answered pain evident on his face "But your friend Mr Potter needs your help, he's badly hurt."

"Harry!" she exclaimed in surprise "He's alive!"

"Yes," he nodded before something occurred to him, aiming his arm at the sky he called out "Tutis!"

A ghostly shape of the dragon he had just been formed in the sky, the same way the dark mark did when it was cast, the dragon roared and let out a jet of flame before returning to hover in the air.

She never even had a chance to say anything further as the masked man vanished into thin air without so much as a sound.

After a few moments of shock she came back to her senses.

"Harry!" she called before turning and running towards the broken section of wall.

* * *

Appearing at the bottom of the valley near the remains of one of his antlers, Harry removed his ring and turned it around as he dropped to the floor in pain, the temporary blood clotting charm he had cast on his neck wearing off as he hit the ground, letting his blood begin to flood out of his body. 

The last thing he remembered as his vision began to fade was the image of Hermione's head appearing over the side of the viaduct high above him as blackness closed in.

* * *

AUTHORS NOTE 1:Firstly I would Like to say alongside writing the new chapters I am in the process of updating chapters 1-10 as I think most of us can agree they were terrible and in hindsight I probably would have found a better way to do them, I have currently updated these chapters on FF (dot) net but have not had a chance to do so on the other three sites this story is posted on. You do not need to re-read these chapters as nothing new happens in them, they are just a better read than they were. 

AUTHORS NOTE 2: Also I would like to dedicate this chapter to Donna, probably my most loyal reader who seems to believe that this story is the best she has ever read and she has read several hundreds she tells me, including the works of Kinsfire and Jeconais. So while I disagree with her opinion that this story is the greatest bit of fan fiction ever written, I would like to dedicate this chapter to her. Thank you Donna.


	68. CH68 Sara’s Song

Chapter 68 – Sara's Song

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:9__th __September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts Express _

_Time:Afternoon_

Harry awoke with a groan, the pain in his neck and shoulders making him gasp out.

"Arry." Came a voice weakly from somewhere to his left.

"Harry, you're alright." Said Hermione's as a hand clamped around his.

Creaking his eyes open he slowly let them adjust to the bright light of the Hospital Wing.

"Morning." He groaned opening his eyes enough to see Hermione, Ron and Ginny standing around his bed "Or possible afternoon."

"Hey Mate." Smiled Ron "How are you?"

"In pain." He replied attempting to look in the direction that he had heard Fleur's voice from, his neck was stiff and thoroughly bandaged, probably magically charmed to remain straight. Rolling onto his side he was able to see Fleur and Colette lying on beds, Colette shaking slightly and looking rather pale but attempting to smile and Fleur laying flat with her waist and shoulder wrapped with bandages.

As the memories of the night before came back to him he jolted upright, ignoring the pain the movement caused.

"The train! Is everyone alright?"

"Everyone is fine Harry." Smiled Hermione.

"Now." Added Ron.

Hermione let out a groan when he spoke.

"Ron I have already apologised THREE times, I'm sorry I cursed you."

"You would think the smartest witch at Hogwarts would know how to aim." Grinned Ron, Harry could tell he was going to be winding Hermione up about this for weeks.

"What happened Harry?" asked Ginny "How did you survive that fall?"

Thinking back Harry remembered how he had transformed back to human before rapidly turning into a dragon as he dropped through the trees, damaging branches as he went, before flying off a second before he hit the ground.

"I fell into a tree, my antlers got caught in the branches giving me enough time to change back, but I lost my grip on the tree before I could climb down and I dropped to the ground, and luckily it wasn't more than five meters, I think I managed a blood clotting charm on my neck but I can't remember. How is everyone else?"

"Well everyone other than you and our two Professorswe got away with nothing more than bruises, cuts and a few post Dementor nerves."

Harry turned to Fleur.

"Are you ok?"

"While you were fighting that thing in the compartment its tail knocked us off our feet, the spike went straight into my side, luckily it couldn't fit between my ribs."

"What about you Colette?" he asked, redirecting his gaze.

"She got closer to the Dementors than everyone else, bar Professor Summers," explained Madam Pomfrey, emerging from her office and casting diagnosis spells on him "She just reacted badly to the proximity; she will be fine by tomorrow, you on the other hand My Lord are very lucky to be alive...AGAIN, after that charm of yours failed you almost bled out, I'm just grateful you had the sense to learn basic emergency medical spells. With the amount of time you spend in here I will have to start keeping a bed reserved for you at all time."

Harry chuckled lightly, but stopped quickly when the pain in his neck increased.

"Your neck should be ok in a couple of days My Lord, you are free to go as long as you come back here and get pain relieving potions tonight and tomorrow, you should be able to remove the spells holding your neck straight by then."

Turning back to the others he asked.

"What happened after I fell?"

"You won't believe it Harry." Exclaimed Hermione "The masked stranger appeared again, and...

* * *

That evening Draco was walking the corridors of Hogwarts.

Draco has been wandering the corridors of Hogwarts for hours, using his Prefect duties as an excuse. He had been trying to wrap his head round the Ginny problem, the weird feeling he had about her at the beginning of term had spiked again earlier that day; when she had put that ring on they had exchanged looks, he had felt something and he couldn't figure out what it was, he had been racking his brain all the way back from the train.

He remembered what it was he had felt then, something was different about her, but what was it? She had the same hair, the same face, the same body, the same personality and the same misguided family leanings, it was true they were more now civil to each other than they had been before, but that wasn't it either.

An image of Ginny appeared in his mind...she wasn't that bad really, if you ignored the fact that she was a pure-blood traitor and Muggle lover. She was relatively pretty, she had nice hair, nice eyes, maybe a bit skinny and flat chested, although she was beginning to develop a bit of a figure.

Draco had to reluctantly admit that...yes...she was attractive.

But then again he would never even consider dating her, it would just be wrong.

But then in the impossible event that he would even consider dating her, she was one of the few girls in the school that might resist his charms, and then there was the problem of his father. Well to be perfectly honest he didn't care about his father or becoming a Death Eater as it was not going to happen anymore, he had been on the train when the attack had happened and that was the last straw as far as he was concerned, the Dementors hadn't tried to ignore him in any way, if anything they seemed to gravitate towards him because he could not conjure a patronus. And then there was his mother who was another matter entirely, she was the perfect mother in the fact that she respected her son's decisions, she might not agree with him and indeed probably wouldn't but she would at least respect them.

Wait...What was he doing, why was he even thinking about this, it shouldn't, wouldn't and couldn't happen, this is Ginny Weasley he was thinking about.

Wait...What in Merlin's name was that?

...Singing?

* * *

Meanwhile in another part of the castle Hermione was doing the exact same thing except she really was on prefect duty and her line of thought was for a different Weasley.

Was Ron ever going to notice her?

They had known each other for six years and for the last two of those they had been of the age where you are supposed to start noticing the opposite sex. But he didn't seem to even look at her; the only women he seemed to look at were Buffy, Tonks, Colette and Fleur.

At that moment a gentle voice interrupted her train of though, the words floating through the air towards her. The voice seemed to be singing and sounded almost angelic to her ears.

"Lay down, your sweet and weary head,

Night is falling; you have come to journeys end,"

The voice was female for sure, but she couldn't tell who, it was not one she recognised.

"Sleep now and dream of the ones who came before,

They are calling from across a distant shore,"

The voice was one of the most beautiful sounds she had ever heard and though the song was full of longing, its mood was calm and relaxing.

"Why do you weep, what are these tears upon your face?

Soon you will see, all of your fears will pass away,

Safe in my arms, you're only sleeping,"

It was the sort of voice that summoned you, calling you, Hermione unconsciously started following it.

"What can you see, on the horizon?

Why do the white gulls call?"

She arrived at a window facing out across the grounds, it was now dark outside and getting late, looking up she saw a tower that she could not recall ever entering before; she could also not recall any mention of it ever being used for anything other than storage.

"Across the sea, a pale moon rises,

The ships have come to carry you home,

And all will turn to silver glass,

A light on the water, all souls pass,"

A figure stood on the balcony that extended from the top floor, theirhands on the wall so that the figure leaned out into the night; Hermione walked on and found the door leading into the tower.

"Hope fades, until the world of night,

Through shadows falling, out of memory and time,

Don't say we have come now to the end,

White shores are calling; you and I will meet again,"

The door was old and heavy, it took all her strength she pushed it open, inside was a spiral stair case leading up, she passed many doors as she continued towards the source of the voice, until she reached the door at the top of the flight, it was lighter than the first. Slowly and quietly she pushed it open.

"And you'll be here in my arms,

What can you see, on the horizon?

Why do the white gulls call?"

Inside was a lounge filled with old fashioned wooden furniture, there was a fire in a hearth under a large ornate fireplace, either side of which were doors which presumably led to other rooms. In front of the fire were two arm chairs, a sofa and a small table, one chair was moved so that it was directly in front of the fire, Hermione could imagine a person sitting in the fire and spending hours staring into the dancing flames. On the far side of the room the balcony was visible.

"Across the sea a pale moon rises,

The ships have come to carry you home,"

She approached the figure who could now be identified as a man, he had his back to her so he wasn't aware that she was there. He was now sitting on the wall, leaning against the main body of the tower. His left palm was flat and something was glowing on it. It appeared to be a clear glass sculpture of some kind, about twenty centimetres in height; the light was shinning from within.

The sculpture was of a woman wearing a long simple dress. She had long flowing hair falling down the length of her back, and a fine and beautiful face. Hermione guessed that if the woman was real the boys of the school would react the same way they did to Fleur and Colette.

The sculpture was slowly rotating and singing out the beautiful voice, not to mention swaying and dancing as she sang; it was evidently not normal glass.

Hermione did not know where from but this woman looked familiar, she could just not place where from.

Suddenly it clicked in her mind; she was the woman on the drawing Adam left in the library.

"And all will turn to silver glass,

A light on the water, grey ships pass,

Into the west."

The sculpture finished singing and curtsied.

"That was beautiful." Hermione remarked, before realizing that she'd just revealed her presence.

The figure didn't even flinch, he barely even moved, he just tilted his head forward and closed his palm, the figure disappeared in a flash of magic.

"I'm...I'm sorry, I'll...I'll go." she stuttered out before quickly making her way to the door.

"You don't have to leave." the voice said, the moment he spoke she identified the voice.

"Adam?" she asked tentatively moving back towards him.

"Last time I checked." he joked, his voice as usual was monotone.

"I'm...I'm sorry for intruding, I didn't know that anyone was using the tower." she said moving out onto the balcony, her eyes slowly readjusting to the shadow of the night.

"I requested a tower room from Dumbledore, it's a bit more like home." he said closing his eyes.

"Wasn't your home destroyed?" she asked tentatively moving to lean against the balcony wall.

"I'm guessing you have read the first few chapters of Dumbledore's book then...yes, that home was destroyed, I meant my new home. The one where I have resided since my original home was destroyed, someday I may be able to show it to you." he smiled.

She noticed that in his right hand the silver disk was again being rotated between his fingers, she would have to ask him about that at some point.

"What is your home like?" she asked activating her usual thirst for knowledge

"Think of Britain during the age of chivalry, increase the beauty, magnificent, grace and magic and you're pretty close, the main difference is that technology doesn't work there, there's too much magic, so it's all wood and stone, the greatest dynasty of men." The sense of longing was evident in his voice "Imagine white stone towers reaching to the sky, herds of animals roaming wild across plains that stretch from horizon to horizon, vast mountain ranges hundreds of miles in length, so tall that they appear to actually pierce the sky, forests and rivers filled with every kind of animal you can imagine."

"Adam, the song, was it about your homeland?"

"It tells of those who leave to help others as I do and those specifically who stay away for long periods of time...they are called home, dreams of entering the Great Haven of Daer Lonnath, seeing the towers gleaming like silver in the evening light...I've been away far to long."

"Why can't you go back?"

"I need to travel to another dimension to get back, that means portals and to transport someone of my power level it would require more power than myself and my staff can currently conjure, I can not return unless the power that was stolen through the portal is returned to me, I'm just glad I left my staff here last time I visited this dimension. In addition of course I can not let my brother run amok in this dimension."

"Adam, can I ask you a question?" she asked tentatively, at his nod she continued "The ring, the one you gave to Ginny, whose was it?"

There were several seconds of silence before he began to answer.

"It belonged to someone very dear to me." he answered slowly, emotions were obviously very strong on this particular subject, Hermione would have to be very careful what she said.

"What happened to her?"

"She was taken from me." he answered, his face showing less and less emotion by the second.

"How long ago?" she asked feeling sorry for the Professor.

"2,387,973,003 years, four months, three days, twenty one hours, thirty one minutes and forty two seconds."

Hermione was shocked, though she did not know whether it was because of his very accurate memory or the fact that after two Billion years he still mourned and felt for her, if she ever met someone who felt for her that strongly she would consider herself the luckiest person on Earth.

"What happened?"

"She was taken from me." he repeated, reopening his palmthe figure re-appearing on his hand.

Something occurred to Hermione.

"That ring...it was an engagement ring wasn't it?" she asked, though she already knew the answer to the question.

In response he moved his left hand so that she could see it, on his third finger was a wedding ring, she did not recognize the metal, it looked like silver but was so 'silvery' it was almost white. Hermione gasped at the sight of the ring.

He then leaned his head forward and removed a chain made from the same material from around his neck; on it was another ring like the one on his finger except that it was slightly smaller. He handed it to Hermione who stared at it in shock and awe, she observed that there were intricate carvings around the band, they appeared to be letters but she did not recognize the language. The letters were in a very long flowing script, the letters, or to be more precise what she guessed were letters almost blended into one another, making it hard to see where one ended and another began, the words actually shone white from the metal band.

"It reads 'Nin Alfirin, Nin Min, Nin Aranal'...It translates as My Immortal, My One...My...Sara." the last word was barely more than a whisper, he refused to show the sorrow that he so evidently felt, Hermione felt so sorry for him.

"How long were you together?"

"2,000,000,001 years, eight months, one day, six hours, two minutes and forty five seconds, we were married for almost exactly two billion years, I came home bringing her a surprise to celebrate our anniversary, but when I arrived my home wasn't there, all that was left was a smoking ruin of my house, a scrap of material...and a wedding ring." he said turning to the ring in Hermione's hand.

"That's all I have to remember her by." he said turning his face back to the night.

I'm...I'm so sorry, if I had known I would never have asked." she said handing the chain back. She cold not imagine what he must have felt when Ginny picked it up, why on earth had she done that "Ginny's not normally nosey, I have no idea what possessed her to..."

"It wasn't her fault." He interrupted "There are special spells on high security vaults to ensure that in the highly unlikely event that they are broken into, that the burglar or burglars become so obsessed and transfixed with the items in the vault that they totally forget about leaving, Ginny was feeling the first effects, the feeling would have got stronger and stronger until she could think of nothing but the treasure around her, the same would have happened to all of you in time, but Ginny obviously has the least natural Occlumency skill."

There was still one question that she had yetto ask, but Adam already knew it.

"I gave the ring to Ginny because she reminds me of her...when we first met that is, flowing red hair, delicate but with such depth of character, awkward because of conflicting emotions about people."

"Who is there around here that she has conflicting emotions about?" she asked confused.

He turned to her "Can't you guess?" at the shake of her head he continued "Two wizards jump immediately to mind." at her continued confused look he kept going "Would it help if I said that they are people that she wished or wishes to be closer to."

"Harry?" she guessed.

"And?" he encouraged her.

"I don't know?" she replied.

"Draco."

"MALFOY, she..." Hermione shouted in shock, before whispering loudly as if the very mention of it were a taboo "She likes Malfoy?"

"I take it you did not see the look they exchanged in Gringotts."

"Of course but I though**t**..."

"Well lets just say that they like each other and the sooner they realize it the better they will be for it...he will need her help to break free."

"Break Free of what?"

"His father, he no longer wants to be a Death Eater."

"How do you know?" she asked even more shocked than before, it was no secret that there had been less fighting if any between the Slytherin Prince and The Gryffindor Three recently, but now that she thought of it they Ginny and Draco had been almost polite to each other recently, she just wished Ron would notice her.

"I just know," he answered "It is getting late, you had better go, I know you are a prefect but take this **in case** you encounter a teacher." he said conjuring a note out of thin air, "It says I was helping you with homework and we lost track of time."

"Thank you." she said, getting up form her spot on the wall, taking the note and walking towards the door.

"He likes you Hermione." he called from behind her, she turned back to him, he hadn't moved from his position on the wall.

Was he saying what she though he was saying? That Ron actually liked her, no...no he couldn't be.

"When he asks you out," he continued "Say yes...but just in case he doesn't, give him some encouragement." he said standing and turning to look at the door "And that goes for you as well Mr. Malfoy."

If it were possible, the door jumped, before Draco slowly put his head through the gap.

"Professor, I..." Adam raised his hand to stop him.

"It matters not...go on both of you." he said creating another note and levitating it to Draco with a careless wave of his hand "You will get what you desire." he said just loud enough for them to hear as they left the room and closed the door.

When they were out of hearing range he added, "I will make sure of it."

* * *

AUTHORS NOTE 1: The song in this chapter is called 'Into The West' by Annie Lennox and is part of the Lord Of The Rings sound track.

AUTHORS NOTE 2: I am aware the Draco bit was not brilliant, but remember this is the first time I have ever written this sort of fic, it's not going to be perfect.


	69. CH69 1st House Castle Black

Chapter 69 – The 1st House Of Harry Potter – Castle Black

Severus Snape was really getting aggravated, not only had the strangers and foreigners been accepted at Hogwarts, but they are now teaching, and even worse still was that Potter had somehow managed to pass his Potions Exams and was also teaching HIS students his best subject, including Malfoy. Not even the Founders knew how that happened, how in Merlin's name had Lucius managed to get him to do that.

He had noticed a change in Malfoy's behaviour this term, he was not Lucius's son so much these days, he'd been almost normal, he hadn't seen him insult Potter once, which he had to admit was a bit of a disappointment. He has actually been almost polite to the Golden Trio, not to mention the Weasley girl; he's been acting almost as strangely towards her as she had towards him. He doubted that either of them actually knew what was going on yet.

Oh Merlin that was a match made in hell, Lucius would have a whole litter of Kneazles if he knew, but then again Draco always did like to get one up on Lucius, that was something they still had in common.

He would have to keep a close eye on Malfoy, if he was not careful he would get himself killed, if not by Lucius then by Weasley Senior, but then again Weasley always was a bit soft, he would be more likely to accept the match than Lucius.

Then there was that woman, Buffy Summers, she was trouble, firstly she was American and couldn't speak proper English to save her life and secondly, now that she's a witch she's was being given private tuition, by the Headmaster no less.

Her companion was a bit more of a mystery. He had power, a lot of it, the Headmaster had vouched for him and as much as Severus trusted the Headmasters opinion there was still something he was not telling them. Last week just after the incident in the MD room, he had returned from Gringotts with a staff, only the most powerful wizards could use them to any great affect, the only other person in the school who had the raw magical power to do so was the Headmaster himself though to his knowledge he never saw fit to making one.

Then there was even more disturbing news, Voldemort was doing very little, not including the attack on the train which was probably just a target of opportunity, or a chance to test out that new pet of his, there had been nothing from him for weeks. He was planning something big, it was the only explanation, and he hadn't called the Death Eaters for over a month.

They would have to see what he had planned.

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:14__th __September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Dumbledore's Office_

_Time:Morning_

The next weekend all those who had been granted access to Castle Black had been invited to assemble in the Headmaster's Office, Harry, Fleur and Colette were the first to arrive.

"Ah My Lord." Greeted Dumbledore, getting up from his desk. He had obviously finally accepted Harry's demand that he be called by his given title "Could I speak to you in private for a minute?"

Harry thought for a moment before nodding, sending reassuring thoughts to Fleur.

Dumbledore turned and opened a room hidden directly behind the Headmasters desk, the section of stone wall and the portrait of Dumbledore's immediate predecessor mounted upon it jutted forward and slid to the side, revealing the hidden room.

Following the Headmaster into it, Harry fully opened his link with Fleur, allowing her to know what was going on.

The room itself was rather small, around the size of his room at the Dursley's except it was oval in shape, the wall, floor and ceiling were all covered in red velvet and the only light came from a small stained glass window containing images of the Four Founders, covering the room in many colours of light.

Around the room were many paintings of various sections of Hogwarts and its grounds, including the Main Gates, Entrance Hall, Great Hall, the four Common Rooms, several stair wells and various other locations, there were about a dozen House Elves in the room monitoring the various paintings, Harry realised that the paintings must show what is actually happening in those areas of the school and that this was how the House Elves told Dumbledore what was going on.

In the centre of the room was a table with a transparent scale model of Hogwarts and its grounds, the inner passages of the castle were visible through the outer walls, the whole thing was contained within a bubble that Harry guessed represented the wards. Upon the model were small white, red, green, blue and yellow figures that flickered in and out of existence like a light bulb with a dodgy connection.

"Please leave us a moment." Dumbledore asked the House Elves who promptly bowed and vanished, leaving the pair alone in the room as the door slid closed behind them.

"This is the Watch Room," explained Dumbledore as he turned to Harry "This is how I monitor what goes on inside of Hogwarts, yet for some strange reason yourself and several other members of staff and students no longer show up in any of the portraits. Would you happen to know why My Lord?"

"I'm afraid I do not know why I no longer appear on the portraits Headmaster." He replied truthfully, he could guess with what was probably a large degree of accuracy that he actually did appear on them, but the House Elves just didn't report what they saw to Dumbledore.

"Very well," acknowledged Dumbledore before turning to the model of Hogwarts, obviously having seen him looking at it earlier "That is something Remus is working on, as I am sure you are aware he has some experience in creating monitoring spells," he grinned, obviously thinking of the Marauders Map "But at the moment its causing a few problems as it isn't just a flat sheet of paper, but regardless I am going off topic." He said straightening himself.

"I wish to apologise to you My Lord, for what have obviously been mistakes on my part as regards to your welfare over the years, it appears that my mistakes go far deeper than those I revealed to you at the end of last year and for that I apologize and I hope that in time I regain some of the trust in you that my actions have recently rid you of."

Harry stood stunned for several seconds, though he was careful not to show it on his face; he could safely say that he was not expecting that, he thought he would be fighting Dumbledore all the way, apparently his successes against him thus far had indeed, as Adam had advised him to do, proved to the headmaster that he was not his pawn.

"I accept your apology Headmaster," Harry nodded before adding "But there are a few words I never want to hear again, 'need to know', 'for your own good', 'I only did it to protect you', 'I must do this' or anything else of the sort. Trust has to be earned Headmaster; it will take time for me to see you as I once did."

"I understand My Lord." Nodded Dumbledore as Harry turned and opened the panel to let them out.

Pausing as he was about to cross the threshold Harry turned to look over his shoulder and corrected.

"Harry."

Walking back into the Office Harry could see that everyone was assembled.

"Ready Harry?" asked Dumbledore, smiling widely at the state of Detente he had just achieved with him.

Nodding, Harry picked up some Floo Powder and threw it into the fire.

"I Harry James Potter Master of Castle Black demand admittance to my estate."

The fire flared and Harry stepped through.

He hurtled through the network, seeing the various exits along the way, the ride seemed more turbulent than usual, Harry barely had time to register this when he jerked sideways and was sent tumbling out of the network.

When Harry's head had finished spinning he discovered that he was on his hands and knees in what appeared to be a sitting room.

Hearing footsteps to his left, Harry spun around, wand raised and ready to strike, only to come face to face, or to be more precise face to navel with Gristleback.

"I apologise for the landing Harry, but Gringotts rules state that that when an owner takes possession of an estate of this size he or she must be escorted inside by a member of staff, in addition the wards around the Castle, the magic around the estate diverted your Floo to this Gatehouse, hence the bumpy landing."

"No more bumpy than usual." He replied, climbing to his feet.

There was a lick of green flame behind them as the rest of the group started arriving through the fireplace.

Finally the last person arrived, it took slightly longer than usual as each landing was as bumpy as his own, when Adam tumbled through the opening he became the only one not to stagger in the slightest as he landed on one knee using his fist for support, Harry observed the slight sagging on his face as he rested, for the first time Harry realised that the jump meant that his power was left back at Hogwarts.

"Sorry Adam I forgot about your power drag."

Adam straightened up, his face wearing a pleasant smile.

"It's fine Harry."

The Goblin cleared his throat so that he could get everyone's attention and led them out into a hall, down a flight of stairs and through the buildings front door, once outside he led them a little way from the Gatehouse so they could see it clearly.

They were standing near a cliff, the Gatehouse stood right on the edge, a balcony out the back leaned over said cliff, what made the scene stranger was the fact that the Gatehouse was, as a gatehouse should be, shaped around two large black sets of gates. One set in front of the other, the gates themselves were two stories high and the building itself three stories high and at least thirty meters in width and the same in depth, making it one of the biggest gatehouses that the group had ever scene and easily big enough for people to live in. But the strange thing was although the gate was heavily fortified, there was no fencing or walls on either side of the Gatehouse so you could in effect walk straight around the side of the building, they were currently standing on the cliff side of the gates.

"We are now standing Viscount on the cliffs of Black Island, if I could ask you to look out over the sea for a moment Mr. Potter the last of your guests is awaiting permission to approach."

Harry looked out where the Goblin directed, hovering about one hundred meters off shore was a woman on a broom that Harry could identify as Andromeda.

"I thought she couldn't see the island?" asked Harry.

"She cannot, but I told her rough directions, the island will become visible when she is granted admission."

Harry withdrew his wand and pointed to his throat.

"Sonorus. I HARRY JAMES POTTER, MASTER OF CASTLE BLACK GRANT ADMITTANCE TO ANDROMEDA BLACK TONKS TO MY RESIDENCE ON BLACK ISLAND. QUIETUS."

A beam of light flew out from Harry's chest and passed through the flyer; as soon as this had happened Andromeda flew to the cliffs and landed.

"Good morning Harry," she greeted "I want to thank you fo..."

"Andromeda." he interrupted, raising a hand "You have more right to be here than I do so let's not speak another word on the subject.

Andromeda paused for a moment before smiling widely.

Turning around, Harry walked towards the gates, as soon as his hand touched them, both sets swung open in front of them.

The Goblin cleared his throat to get their attention again.

"This way please Viscount."

The group followed the Goblin through the gates, across the grass and over a slight hill, a lawn came into view with a path leading up to a very old and remarkably intact castle, the stonework was black and ancient, the castle looked older than Hogwarts and roughly the same size, but unlike Hogwarts the castle appeared to be a more practical design with a large outer wall and a tall inner wall, both of square design, inside the inner wall was a large central building that Harry remembered was called a keep, on each corner of the walls and the keep were towers. Unlike the tall towers of Hogwarts the wall towers were wide and defensive; several turrets also adorned each wall. The towers on the keeps corners were taller and topped with taller flag poles than the wall towers, with one larger tower extending from the middle of the keep with an extremely large flag pole on the top, on each pole was a flag with the Black family crest upon it. Surrounding the castle was a small ditch about five meters wide extending from the wall and surrounding that where many acres of lawns, fields, woods and overgrown gardens.

Harry was not sure whether to he should be shocked at the castles grandeur or whether he should shudder at the dark overgrown, ominous state of the place.

"Wow," exclaimed Ginny "That's...that's..."

"Kinda creepy." Buffy contributed.

"To say the least." Agreed Colette.

"Shall we go in." chuckled Remus.

They passed over a drawbridge which extended over the ditch and reached the Gate House of the outer wall; a set of Heavy Iron Gates could be seen a meter behind a very large portcullis, the Gate House itself was very thick and was most defiantly designed for defence; the crest of the Black family was displayed above the portcullis.

The Goblin waved his hand and the portcullis rose out of the way.

Stepping into the tunnel before the gate, the group observed the various spikes, arrow slits and various other defensive measures housed within the Gatehouse.

As Harry reached the gate the Goblin handed him a large key which he pushed it into the lock and turned.

Nothing happened.

"You need to demand entry Viscount." Gristleback explained, clearing his throat.

"Oh right, I Harry James Potter Master of Castle Black demand admittance to my estate."

There was a flash of light and all the flags and crests that they could see though the gate changed to that of the Potter family, then followed a loud creak as the gate swung open slowly.

As the Gatehouse was spread over both walls they didn't need to repeat this procedure on the inner wall.

Upon passing through the inner wall and into the bailey (Harry had been doing research on castles so he knew all the correct terms) of the castle, he observed a large area of overgrown gardens and small lawns; they approached the keep only to be confronted by a large set of black wood doors with the Potter family crest mounted above them.

Harry placed the key in this lock and turned, the door swung open slowly.

"Viscount, congratulations on your inheritance of Castle Black." said Gristleback with a satisfied smile "As you know, our staff have been around the estate and have removed a large number of dangerous charms, jinxes and curses that could cause you or your guests harm, we have also finished installing additional wards as you requested. You now have full ownership of the estate and are in effect its secret keeper and as a result the only people who know of the location of the estate are present here today."

Harry thought for a moment then asked.

"What about you're Goblins, I'm not trying to imply in any way that they would give away personal information but I thought it best to ask."

Gristleback gave a toothy smile "You are correct in thinking that any of our employees would never give away personnel information, they all have to sign a magical contract of confidentiality upon joining the company, but to be on the safe side we always wipe their memories of the location when they return."

Harry nodded his acceptance.

"This way please Viscount." the Goblin directed leading the way into the house.

They entered a large entrance hall, the floors of which were dirty and all the surfaces were thick with dust.

"Professor," Harry asked turning to Remus "I was wondering do you think Dumbledore would object if..."

"Dobby and Winky are already here Harry." Remus explained with a smile "We knew you would want them working for you."

"Thank you Professor."

"There is someone else here as well Harry."

"Who?" Harry asked confused.

"Kreacher."

"WHAT?" shouted Harry, Ron and Ginny.

"He is now your legal property Harry/"

"I don't..."

There were three pops and the House Elves appeared in front of them, the one in the centre stepped forward and all three bowed low.

"Professor Harry Potter Sir, Dobby and Winky are overjoyed that you want us working for you sir."

"It's my pleasure Dobby, now how much do you want to be paid...how's ten Galleons a week with one day a week off sound...the same goes for Winky if she wants it."

"Master Professor Harry Potter Sir!" Dobby exclaimed "Dobby couldn't accept so much generosity."

"I insist Dobby," he said with a smile, he then turned to Winky "Do you wish to be paid too Winky?"

"No thank you Professor Potter Sir, Winky is a true House Elf and wishes to serve you as other House Elves would."

"Very well Winky, as you wish."

"Thank you Master." she said bowing low, as she straightened up she snapped her fingers and her tatty clothes were replaced by a tea cosy

"Winky, could you wear something a little less...a little less..."

"Degrading." Hermione contributed, for the first time Harry saw that she was beaming, she was probably overjoyed that although SPEW had failed these House Elves would at least get a good life, she knew he of all people would treat them well.

He had half expected her to explode at even the thought that he would be employing House Elves.

"Exactly." Harry agreed.

Winky thought for a moment then clicked her fingers; the tea cosy was exchanged for a sheet of black material wound around her in such a way as to look like a miniature robe, on the front was the Potter family crest in the same place as the Hogwarts Logo was on their school robes, Harry saw how clever this was, she was wearing a scrap of material that was made in such a way as to make it look like she was wearing robes, though technically she wasn't.

Dobby seeing Winky's idea also clicked his fingers and then appeared to be wearing a miniature butler's outfit also with the Potter family crest in the top left hand corner.

Some of the group laughed at the pair's new attire.

Harry also smiled but then his face hardened and turned to Kreacher.

"Kreacher..." Harry began but before he could get any further Kreacher flung himself down on his hands and knees.

"I'M SO SORRY MASTER, I WASN'T MYSELF, I'M SORRY FOR INSULTING YOU, I'M SORRY FOR INSULTING YOUR FRIENDS, I'M SORRY FOR BETRAYING MY LAST MASTER TO HIS DEATH, I'M SORRY, I'M SORRY, I'M SORRY."

Harry turned to Remus, utterly confused at the House Elves sudden change of personality.

"Some families cast spells on their House Elves so that their personalities tend to be the same as the family they serve as in the case of Kreacher he used to serve the Black's and therefore had the same mind set as them, but now he serves the Potter's. Dobby and Winky don't have the same spells upon them, their personalities are constant, as Kreacher is now your House Elf Harry he is now a good House Elf and he serves the same side as you."

Harry nodded and turned back to the wailing Kreacher, trying to ignore the look of fury on Hermione's face that anyone could just change a beings identity like that.

"KREACHER" he shouts, attempting to quell the still wailing House Elf "I don't blame you...it wasn't your fault...I forgive you."

"Oh thank you Master, a thousand thank you's." he cried out in relief as he regained his footing and changed his attire to match Winky's.

"Now you three, I want you to start cleaning this castle from top to bottom, firstly clean all the rooms that Andromeda and Tonks will use as they will also be living here, then I want Dobby to go and clean Godrics Hollow and Kreacher to do the same to Number 12 as he has lived there the longest and knows his way around the best, when you have finished I want you both to go to Potter Mansion and do the same before return here to help Winky clean the rest of the keep then move onto the rest of the castle and it's grounds, oh and can you have at least half of the flags displaying the Black family crest instead of the Potter crest, I may own the castle but there are more Blacks here than Potter's. When you've finished I want all four houses to look like people have lived in them for generations, but remember there is no rush for the Potter Estate or Godrics Hollow as they are currently unused."

With three calls of 'yes master' and similar statements, they popped away.

Gristleback then leads them into the Living Room, the room was large and full of cloth covered furniture, pulling the sheets off produced large clouds of dust which were rapidly banished by one or more of the teachers, when the dust cleared three settees, two arm chairs and a table were revealed, all were arranged in front of a very large fireplace, above which was a shield with the Black family crest upon it, there were a pair of Japanese's looking swords crossed behind it. The room also appears to contain a mini bar as well as several large exterior windows now dirty from neglect, the room was also heavily covered in dust, dirt and more than one spider was visible in the corners of the room (luckily Ron didn't notice).

There was a burst of flame as Colette lit the fire with a ball of flame, blowing more dust out into the room.

Approaching the fireplace, Harry picked up a lump of hardened Floo Powder from the jar beside the fireplace and threw it into the hearth.

The fire coughed and spluttered for a moment as the ancient powder slowly seemed to do what it was supposed to do.

"I Harry James Potter change the password of my residence to..."

Harry had been thinking very carefully about what to have as a password and he had finally decided, as the message said 'any language' Harry had decided on...

Parseltongue

"Padfoot." he hissed, the fire place roaring with flame before returning to a normal burn, Harry turned back to the Goblin.

"Shall we continue?"

Over the next hour they saw the rest of the castle including several offices, large libraries (making Hermione want even more to meet the terms of the Sirius's will), store rooms and many bedrooms, of which Andromeda and Tonks each chose one, Harry chose the room with a connecting office on the top floor of the keep in the central turret as it gave him a good view of the castle. He discovered that it was in fact the main bedroom of the master of the house which seemed fairly appropriate.

They also discovered that the castle had a heated underground swimming pool as well as a very fine wine cellar and a large amount of dungeons, around and in front of the castle were a series of woods, fields and gardens all overgrown from neglect, behind the castle were vertical cliffs, they were a similar colour to the white cliffs near Dover on England's south coast and they appeared to be the only bright part of the island. They were heavily worn at the base by weathering making the piece of land they were on wider at the top than it was at the bottom, presumably some magic was preventing the overhanging stone from breaking off under its own weight, there were also a series of caves dug into the cliffs.

Arriving back in the living room, Gristleback turned to Harry.

"I believe that is everything Viscount," he concluded "Congratulations again on your inheritance."

He then snapped his fingers and vanished.

Harry then turned to Andromeda.

"I hope you'll enjoy living here."

"I'm sure we will Harry," Andromeda thanked "But there must be some way we can repay you for allowing us back to our ancestral home."

"You could help the House Elves brighten this place up a bit," Looking down at his hand he pulled of the Black family ring and handed it to her "Use the ring to get yourself continuing access to my account and then send it back to me."

"It's the least we can do Harry, and thank you." Andromeda said smiling widely before drawing her wand and heading down the hall casting cleaning charms as she went.

Harry then turned to Adam.

"Could I ask you to add your protections to all four of my residences, the Goblins have already added the strongest wards they can but I get the feelings yours will be even stronger."

"Certainly Harry." Adam nodded.

"Shall we move on to number twelve?" he said turning to Remus, he had already got Dumbledore to reveal the Order's secret location to Buffy, Neville, Luna and Adam so they could talk about it freely.

"As you wish Harry."

Harry nodded and moved to the fireplace, picking up some Floo Powder he threw it into the fire.

"12 Grimmauld Place" the fire flared and he stepped in.


	70. CH70 2nd House 12 Grimmauld Place

Chapter 70 – The 2nd House Of Harry Potter – 12 Grimmauld Place

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:14__th __September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – England_

_Location:London – 12 _Grimmauld Place

_Time:Afternoon._

Harry climbed to his feet in the Dining Room of Grimmauld Place.

Walking over to the table, he slowly moved to the chair that Sirius always sat in during meals; he slowly laid his hand on the back, only to withdraw it quickly when the fire flared to allow the others through.

"Was there anything in particular that you wanted to do here 'Arry?" Fleur asked as the rest of the party arrived, she could obviously see the pain that Harry was feeling at being in this house.

"Yes." Harry replied, turning to Adam "I was wondering, could you get rid of the portrait of the late Mrs. Black in the hallway, as well as all the House Elf heads as we have had no luck in removing them."

"Of course." he said following Harry into the hall, the rest following behind, the new arrivals looking at the dreary surroundings and those returning looking forward to getting rid of Mrs Black for good.

Adam approached the portrait curtains, brandishing his staff.

"What can you possibly do that we haven't already tried?" Asked Ron.

Ignoring him, Adam turned briefly to Remus and Tonks.

"Has she any other portraits?"

"No."

"Thank goodness." Ron contributed under his breath earning smiles from most of the assembled group.

Adam flung back the curtains.

"YOU FILTHY MUDBLOODS, GET OUT OF MY HOUSE..." shouted the obnoxious woman, starting her usual string of insults causing some of the group to cover their ears.

Adam then said the thing that was probably the complete opposite to anything the assembled company could have expected.

"You have beautiful eyes."

"IF MY HUSBAND WERE...were….pardon?"

Everyone goggled at him including Mrs. Black.

He turning back to the group and smiled.

"Well that silenced her alright."

Turning back to the portrait he shot a blast of flame from the end of his staff, there were three short flashes of light as protective spells over the painting were broken as the flame penetrated them. The fire passed straight into the portrait, surrounding Mrs. Black on all sides of the non-existent painted room.

Mrs. Black tried to run out of the painting but recoiled in pain "ARRGH, YOU VANDAL, HOW DARE YOU TOUCH MY PORTRAIT."

"I dare to do anything I wish." Adam replied in a perfectly calm voice, levelling his staff once again at the portrait.

Flames shot out and scorched the rest of the painting; Mrs. Black could be heard wailing as the canvas crumbled into ash and fell to the floor, leaving an empty frame.

A few seconds later the frame dropped off the wall and smashed on the ground.

"Why didn't we think of that?" asked Tonks.

"We did," replied Remus "Severus after getting into a shouting match with her tried to set it on fire, blasting hexes at point blank range and even stooped himself to try using a Muggle lighter but none of them worked."

"Please, don't insult my magical strength by comparing mine and Severus's power levels." added Adam, before turning back to the wall.

Throwing his hand out to his left and his staff out to the right, he aimed at the row of Elf heads which instantly ignited, burning them to a cinder before the ash floated to the floor, gathering in the same neat pile as had been created below the portrait.

Adam wearing a satisfied smile, he clicked his fingers making the ash disappeared with a puff.

He then waved his arm at the empty stakes that held the Elf heads and they turned into wall mounted candle holders.

"There, much better. Anything else?" he asked turning to Harry.

Harry nodded and led then up stairs to the room containing the Black family tree, Harry walked up to the portrait, the proud House Crest of two dogs, supporting a shield containing an arrow shaped band, a sword and two stars. The title of the canvas standing below it followed by a quote

_There are many stories between the lines_

_How true_ thought Harry.

He turned to Adam.

"Could you sort of...wipe the slate clean, so to speak?"

Adam nodded and waved his hand at the tapestry, a few seconds later all the scorch marks were removed, leaving the names intact and almost all the other names greyed out, making them harder, but not impossible, to read. Extra branches expanded from some of the newly revealed names, the tapestry actually had to get wider to incorporate all the additional links as Tonks family, the Weasley's, several other families that Harry knew (including his own) where added to the tree.

Turning back to them Adam explained what he had done.

"I have removed no one from the tapestry, as this much history should not just be thrown away."

"Thank you." Nodded Harry, idly wondering why Adam had left Malfoy and his mother un-greyed, though his mind was drawn back to the conversation he had with Sirius while his godfather explained the tapestry.

Ginny then realised something and turned quickly to Remus "What happened to Buckbeak?"

Some of the others gasped realising that they didn't know what had happened to the Hippogriph.

Buffy finally knowing what people were talking about spoke up "Hagrid is taking care of him, he's hidden just inside the forest."

There was a collective sigh of relief from Ron, Hermione and Ginny.

The others turned around and began heading out of the room.

Harry trailed behind them deep in thought before stopping at the top of the stairs.

"Give me a minute, I think I left one of my robes here last time we stayed."

Turning he disappeared out of sight at the top of the stairs.

* * *

Fleur watched as Harry disappeared from view, she knew that Colette and Tonks at least realised that he was lying, but it was her job to go after him. 

"I'll go and help him find it." She announced before following him up the stairs before anyone could speak, hoping that Colette and Tonks would prevent anyone from following.

As she reached the top of the stairs she heard Tonks say:

"Let's go and get some tea; they'll probably going to have a snogging session."

Reaching the first landing she paused for a moment to examine the link.

Harry's mind was closed to her, though she could feel the emotions flowing through, following the link she went up three flights of stairs and turned to a door that was ajar.

Walking in she saw that the room was larger than most of the other rooms, inside was a large king size bed done out in Gryffindor colours, the walls were a deep red as was the thick carpet and the ceiling, by the look of the walls they had been painted the Muggle way, on them were several posters of Quidditch teams, both national and league as well as a few more of attractive ladies in provocative posses.

The furniture in the room, like those around the rest of the house was dark wood but all the surfaces had been covered with brightly coloured mats, sheet and objects of any and every description including a lot of photos of a couple and a baby, four friends and a boy with a lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead.

If Fleur did not already know who had done up this room she would have guessed that the person wanted to remove anything and everything that was dark and dreary from it, making a mockery of everything the house stood for.

Sitting on the floor at the far end of the room, with a mirror held in his hands, was a crying Harry Potter, the tears weren't flooding out of him and he wasn't breaking down.

He was merely sitting there, the tears running down his face in memory of someone whom he loved and missed.

Walking over to her mate, Fleur knelt down beside him and pulled him into an embrace.

He continued to hold the mirror for several seconds before wrapping his arms around her.

Neither said anything for words were not necessary, they just held each other until Harry's eyes decided that he had cried enough.

"Thank you." Harry said quietly "I just didn't want to be seen crying in front of the others."

Fleur didn't respond for several seconds before taking a breath and beginning to speak, her manner made it obvious she was about to say something very private that not many, if any people knew.

"I cried...I cried when my grandmamma died. Father thinks I don't remember it but I do. I didn't cry at the time, I thought she had just gone to sleep, it didn't occur to me that that was the reason she was so still...A few weeks later is hit me that she was actually gone and that I would never see her again."

Fleur felt a tear slowly slide down her face.

"I cried myself to sleep for nights and spent most of the days in my room, I didn't want anyone to see me like that. So I just kept pacing around my room, looking over the pictures I had of her or staring at my new wand which contained one of her hairs...Until I had a dream about her...She told me that it was ok to miss her...That I could cry for her...But not to let life pass her by because of her...and not to be ashamed of tears."

She took another shaky breath before continuing.

"I know it was just a dream...and that it wasn't real...but what she said was true 'Arry."

They said nothing for many more minutes until Harry looked up at her tear stained face and said with so much tenderness and feeling that Fleur wanted to melt.

"I am so glad you mated with me."

Fleur smiled so widely she was in danger of pulling a muscle.

Hugging each other once more, the pair sat up and wiped each other's tears away.

Picking up the mirror, Harry stared at it for a moment.

"Sirius gave me one of these last year, he said I could talk to him through it...but I never used it, if I had none of us would never have gone to the Ministry."

Fleur smiled inwardly when she noted that he didn't say that 'Sirius would not have died', he was accepting that it was not his fault as last.

Pulling out her wand, Fleur cleaned any remnants of the tears of his face, before doing the same to her face with a quick burst of her Veela powers.

"Come on 'Arry." She smiled "Let's get out of here."

Smiling back, Harry pocketed the mirror and took her hand as they walked out of the room and back down the stairs.

* * *

In the kitchen Remus and the others were waiting impatiently for Harry and Fleur to return. Those who hadn't realised that he was making the stuff about leaving a robe in his room soon tweaked to what was going on, eventually resulting in everyone figuring it out. 

He and Hermione had both wanted to go up to him but Tonks and Colette didn't let them leave, Colette said that Fleur had experience with this sort of thing but refused to explain more.

When the pair walked in through the door, everyone looked up, everyone instantly recognised that Harry now looked as though the large weight that looking back they all realised they had seen gathering on him as they walked around the house was now lifted. He looked much brighter and happier than before.

"I was mistaken," smiled Harry "I must have left my robe elsewhere."

With that he walked over to the fire and took a deep breath as he prepared to visit his ancestral home.

Picking up Floo Powder he threw it into the fireplace, stated his destination and stepped through.


	71. CH71 3rd House The Potter Estate

Chapter 71 – The 3rd House Of Harry Potter – The Potter Estate

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:14__th __September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:The Potter Estate_

_Time:Late Afternoon._

Landing with a thud, Harry looked up into a cloud of dust. Picking himself off the floor, he had to blink several times to clear out the years of dirt that had just been blasted into his eyes.

Harry looked around at the Sitting Room of the Potter Estate as best he could through the clouds of dust he had just disturbed.

Like the castle, there were sheets covering the furniture, walls and the floor, keeping the dust off the floor (but unfortunately gathering it for when someone lands in a heap on one of the sheets covering the ground).

Coughing heavily Harry started vanishing as mush dust as possible as the rest of the group began emerging from the fireplace.

They did nothing for the first few minutes but dust removal, when they thought the room was sufficiently dust free they began removing the sheets.

The room underneath was a lot more pleasant than either of the other houses. The room was done out in light pleasant colours rather than the deep colours of the Chateau or the bleakness of either of the Black residences. The furniture was of light woods and the seating was nicely padded, making the room very pleasant to sit in, a wonderfully padded rug laid in front of the fireplace and a large Wizard photograph of the Potter Family and friends above it.

Harry spent several minutes just starring at the picture looking at each of the people in detail. Standing at the back of the picture where six older men and women, two of which he could identify as his mothers parents, he had seen pictures of them at the Dursley's. The rings visible on the fingers of two of the others suggested that they were his father's parents, he could see the likeness of his father to his grandfather easily, he began to wonder if a spell was cast upon the male line to make them look so similar. His grandmother stood beside him, her long curly grey hair falling around her shoulders as they and presumably his great aunt and uncle smiled widely at the just pregnant form of his mother standing in front of them, around her stood Sirius, Remus and Peter all smiling widely at the lump that was him.

When he came back to himself he noticed that almost everyone else was doing exactly the same as him.

Clearing his throat he led them out of the sitting room and into the hall, not giving them a chance to say anything as they began exploring the house, he walked ahead of them, not wanting to engage in conversation for a few minutes at least.

They past by many chambers some bedrooms, others libraries, a couple of offices and various other types of room including the kitchens and a trophy room, at the end of which hung a large tapestry with a family tree on it.

The tapestry was larger than that at Grimmauld Place and went back further in time, unlike the Black tapestry the Potter family itself was smaller but all related families were shown on the tapestry as well, no matter the allegiance. The crest at the top of the tree was a red shield with a gold star upon it; the star was twisted slight so that each point pointed to the one following it, upon the star was the symbol for infinity. Below the crest was a Latin phrase and in English the words:

_Blood is thicker than water_

"Bringing light to the world for eternity." Translated Adam as he examined the family tree "Sounds appropriate for you Harry."

On most branches at least one name would have another shield or crest below it, indicating where either another family had been linked to the Potter's or where the family crest would change as a new Head of Family came to power. At the bottom of the list Harry could see his name and those of his parents and grandparents, each with their own crest. Looking to the left of his name he saw the names of the Dursley's, Harry played for a moment with the notion of blasting them off of the tapestry, but realised that that would make him no better than the Black's. Looking along his level he saw many familiar names including the Weasley's, Malfoy's, Tonks and Sirius's families and three of four more that he recognised from all of the Hogwarts Houses.

"Blimey." Exclaimed Tonks as she examined some of the names "You are well connected Harry, your distantly related to almost half the Wizengamot."

"Not that it will do him much good nowadays, almost every Pureblood Wizard is related to every other." commented Remus "Shall we have a look outside; it's been a long time since I have been here and it would be nice to see the grounds again.

They all began to file out but Harry stopped when he realised that Adam was not with them, turning back into the room he saw him kneeling down in front of the portrait, looking intently at the line that connected him to his parents.

"Something wrong?" Harry asked.

Adam ran his hand down the line before standing up and turning around.

"No Harry, I just thought I saw something, I must have been mistaken."

Harry shrugged it off as the pair rejoined the group.

Walking further down the path the group were able to see that the house and garden were sitting on a small flat area of a steep slope that made up a mountain. On either side of the house on small terraces were more gardens of varying size, in fact every single flat surface in the area appeared to be covered in gardens, greens, patios, orchards, small seating areas, observation points and any other sort of garden related area you could think off. Each such area was either part of the hill or was supported by a retaining wall that was holding the earth in place.

As the group spread out over the gardens that Harry guessed had been magically flattened out to allow for more space around the house as there were far too much of it to be natural. Looking back at the building, Harry observed that it was a lot smaller than the Chateau Delacour but larger than the Dursley's, the sort of large house you might find on an expensive street, rather large and expensive but just too small to avoid being called a mansion. If he had to guess Harry would have said the front of the building was probably between two and three times the width of the Dursley's and probably the same in depth and one floor greater in height, the inside was obviously magically enlarged but if it were its actual size the house could have just held the Weasley family with everyone had their own room.

Looking down the slope in front of the house, Harry followed the path with his eyes as it left the gardens and wound its way down to a small thatched village on a less steep area of the mountain, it like the gardens was arranged on terraces, though they were larger, measured in tens of meters rather than the five or six square platforms around the house. Surrounding the village appeared to be more terraces where food was growing.

Turning back towards the house Harry saw that beyond the structure was a path leading up the steep side of the small mountain, winding its way amongst the gardens that covered the area towards a small grassy area at least twenty meters higher up the slope nearer the peak.

Curiosity carried Harry around the house and up said slope, after several minutes of hard walking, which got his heart pumping rather hard, Harry staggered onto the small green area.

Turning around he could see several of the others just beginning to follow him up, turning back he was rather surprised by what he saw.

Less than two meters from him stood a very large, very angry looking male Gryphon.

Having never seen a Gryphon before Harry was fascinated by the threatening creature. It stood around six foot tall at the shoulder, its Head was the of an eagle, its neck was hidden under a large golden mane which flowed down to the body of a lion, its forelegs were the talons of an eagle as were its golden wings, all in all it was a magnificent creature, far more elegant than a Hippogriph.

It was staring at him hard, its large beak slightly open, ready to snap an arm off if he came any closer, the Gryphon growled deep in its throat, it was not a noise he expected to hear from a creature with a beak but it growled none the less.

Leaning forward the Gryphon sniffed at Harry who was trying extremely hard not to move, if he went forward or sideways the Gryphon may strike and if he leaned back he would fall down the slope to his death.

He tried to slowly lean to the side but the Gryphon snapped its beak in the space he was trying to move into making Harry freeze, he didn't even want to try reaching for his wand.

The Gryphon moved its large head towards his right hand and sniffed at his family ring before leaning back and twisting its head so that the large eye on the side of its head was staring directly at him.

He stood stock still for several seconds before the Gryphon extended a talon in his direction.

Harry tensed again, preparing to jump back off the ledge; hopefully he would have enough time to transform before he hit the ground, even though it would reveal his identity.

In one rapid movement the Gryphon lunged its talon forward, but far from cutting into his stomach, the limb curled around his back and pulled Harry against the Gryphon's body in what could best be described as a hug.

Not knowing what on earth to do, Harry just stood there while the Gryphon 'hugged' him.

A few seconds later the Gryphon released him and he stepped back, only to get the shock of his life when the creature ran its tongue up his face.

He coughed and spluttered at the taste on his lips before realising that the Gryphon had turned around and walked further back onto the platform which he could now see properly. The stretch of grass was surrounded on three sides by the rock walls which extended up only three or four meters above the top of the platform before reaching the open top of the small mountain, the open side that the path joined the platform on was open enough to allow the sun to either shine down upon them or through the gap in the front of the platform in the morning and evening.

The platform itself was no more than a rounded ten square meter area with three caves dug into the earth and rock in front of him, one was an arch shape and the tunnel beyond it straight, above the entrance was the Star and infinity crest of his ancestors, the others caves looked more like they had been roughly carved out and much more natural.

The Gryphon, after moving away from Harry, went to the tunnel on the left and called down it in a bird's cry that was much deeper than that of any normal bird.

A few seconds later another smaller Gryphon emerged, it was still very large but about a foot smaller than the first, it had no mane but a coat of golden feathers spreading down to the shoulders where the lions coat took over.

Following the second Gryphon came four small cubs, each just a foot in height.

The female Gryphon walked up to him and sniffed a couple of times before moving to the centre of the platform and lying down, allowing the cubs to come over to Harry and start sniffing at him.

"I see you have met the mountains resident predators Harry." came Remus's voice from behind him as he heaved himself up onto the platform "I probably should have told you about them before you came up, but it has been so long since I've been here that I completely forgot."

"You could have shouted a warning." Replied Harry, trying to stay upright as the young Gryphons tugged at his trousers, they were stronger than they looked.

"There was no need; you were wearing your family ring so there was no danger."

"I don't understand?"

"The Gryphons are effectively guard dogs." The male Gryphon snarled at the comparison "But that would be putting it lightly," continued Remus, looking cautiously towards the creature "Several generations back a couple of Gryphons came here and nested, they started hunting the local livestock and they blocked your families access to that tunnel." Said Remus, pointing to the central tunnel "Understandably the villagers wanted to remove them but the current head of your family had a better idea, he would agree to let them live up here and hunt the herds of deer and other large wild animals in return for their protecting the House and village and ever since, even when the remainder of their species became extinct in Britain, a Gryphon couple have lived up here protecting the estate, a few times a year they migrate to mainland Europe but at least one of the Gryphons that returns is always one of those that left."

Remus said this as Fleur, Colette, Hermione and Ron made it to the top of the slope.

"If memory serves, my guess would be that this," he said gesturing to the large male who Harry noticed had his eyes locked on Remus "Is Talon." the Gryphon let out an affirmative call, still not taking his eyes off Remus "He was a young adult when I was last here fifteen years ago, he never liked me very much."

Talon punctuated the statement with a snort.

"Not that he had much choice in the matter, your Grandfather granted me admission to the estate and so he had to live with it."

"Why doesn't he like you?" asked Harry.

"Werewolf." Explained Remus "Two top predators in the same range, that's another reason that Gryphons are nearly extinct in the British Isles, competition from Dragons drove them into mainland Europe.

"Err Arry?" came Fleur's worried voice.

Turning to her Harry saw that the female Gryphon had moved and was now snarling at Colette and his mate.

Harry quickly stepped in front of the Veela.

"No, they are my friends, they are all my friends." The female looked at him for a moment before turning to her mate who slowly nodded. Turning back to Harry the female nodded slightly, not overly happy with the decision before returning to her young.

Breathing a sigh of relief he turned to the Veela.

"Are you ok?"

"We're ok." Replied Colette nodding "I doubt they will disobey you, not that I want to wander around the estate without an escort."

"What is down that tunnel anyway?" asked Fleur.

Harry turned to Remus who gestured for Harry to go and look.

As Harry passed the Gryphons he heard Remus say quietly to the others when they attempted to follow him:

"No, let Harry look by himself."

Not turning back, he walked into the small tunnel and began to follow its path, looking at the smooth walls as he went; the tunnel split in two and proceeded of to the left and right. Deciding on the left route he began to walk down the curved tunnel, after he had walked about four meters he could see a series of square holes in the inside curve of the wall forming large windows.

As he approached one, he looked out and saw a large circular area, like that which the Gryphons lived around, though it was about twice the size, it was evident now that an awful lot of the top of the mountain was a magical illusion as such a large area would have to be many meters from the top of the mountain.

In the courtyard were a series of small obelisks arranged in a circular pattern, on the far side of the courtyard Harry could see the other passage through the corresponding windows in that passage and an entrance where both passages met again and led out into the courtyard.

Walking further around the passage Harry moved out into the courtyard area and looked in closer detail at the stones, looking at the closest stone he realised immediately what this area was, the first three words on the obelisk were:

_JAMES & LILY POTTER_

It was a cemetery.

Before him were the graves of his ancestors.

The oldest of his family he guessed lay under the tallest of the obelisks at four feet tall at the back of the cemetery, the obelisks then got progressively smaller as they created a semicircle around the first and then a semicircle around that ring and so on through four rings until they reached the last and smallest obelisk at just over a foot tall in the middle of the half filled fifth ring which held the names of his parents.

He dropped to the ground in front of his parent's grave.

It occurred to him that he had never once wondered where they were buried, all these years they had lain here and he had not known

For the first time in his life, as he knelt in front of the graves of his ancestors he felt...whole.

He had a future with Fleur and now he had a past.

Yes

He was...at last.

Complete.

* * *

After Remus had finished explaining what was down the passage the group had got progressively more nervous with every minute that past, how would Harry react to seeing his parent's graves?

Fifteen minutes after he had entered the group turned to look at the passage as footsteps began echoing on the stone tunnel floor.

As Harry emerged into the sunlight, everyone, even the Gryphons looked at him.

"Arry?" Fleur asked nervously "Are you ok?"

Looking at her he put on a large smile and replied.

"I'm a lot better than ok."

He didn't say more as he began to walk to the edge of the slope before turning back to Remus.

"Who buried them?"

"I did." Replied Remus "I brought their bodies back here and buried them before the wards sealed the Estate until the next generation of Potter's returned."

Harry nodded his understanding before turning to the Gryphons.

"I will see you soon Talon."

The Gryphon gave a return call before returning to one of the two tunnels that lay beside the cemetery entrance.

Smiling Harry began to descend the hill towards the mansion.

As the group re-entered the sitting room Harry turned to the others.

"If you don't mind I would like to see Godrics Hollow on my own."

Remus nodded his understanding.

"As you wish Harry, we will return to Hogwarts."

Harry nodded as the others looked at him sympathetically before entering the flames and vanishing, Fleur, Colette, Buffy, Ron, Hermione and Ginny all sent him worried looks but he just nodded and mouthed.

"I'll be fine."

Once the other had gone Harry picked up some Floo Powder and drew his wand just in case.

Taking a deep breath he sent the powder flying into the fire.

"Godrics Hollow."


	72. CH72 4th House Godrics Hollow

Chapter 72 – The 4th House Of Harry Potter – Godrics Hollow

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:14__th __September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Wales_

_Location:Godrics Hollow_

_Time:Early Evening_

Harry, for once, managed to stay on his feet as he exited the fireplace.

Looking around, he saw that he was in a dark living room. It was early evening by this time, but very little light was entering through the now filthy windows.

The entire room was thick with dust and dirt, but more than that, the walls, floor and ceiling were all covered with vines and plants were nature had broken the windows and taken over the house.

He remembered how Remus had told him that it was Potter tradition that the first born of the current head of the Potter family would move to the Hollow after he or she was married so they could enjoy married life before they had to move back to the Estate upon the death of the previous Head of the Family to take up their role as the new Head of the Family.

He walked to the middle of the room, it wasn't overly large, there were two arm chairs as well as a settee positioned in front of the fireplace, all over grown with vines of every variety. Turning, he saw above the hearth, a large Muggle picture of a wood, showing a stag, a wolf, a large black dog, and a rat standing together as comrades.

Walking out of the room, he headed out of the stiff front door and walked around to the back garden, the lawn was equally as overgrown as the house.

There were large pine trees along the gardens borders, in front of them and around the rest of the beds were very long and fiercely overgrown plants, the lawn itself was covered in foot tall grass interspersed with weeds.

There was one section of the garden that was totally dead; a black strip of long deceased plants extended from the far end, passing through the line of pines, leaving a section of dead wood on the trees on either side of the strip.

Harry could feel the black magic seeping from the stains. He just knew that that was where Voldemort had walked, how evil was he if even his mere presence destroyed life.

Walking over to the tree, Harry waved his hand over the bark in a complex pattern which resulted in four new branches bursting out from amongst the blackened bark, pushing the dead material aside and causing them to break off, leaving the branches to continue to grow normally, hopefully the remaining patches of black magic would not be able to interfere with any more of the trees growth.

He repeated the procedure with the other tree before turning back to the strip; he would heal the grass later.

The black strip extended to the back door, following it Harry walked inside, the door itself was hanging on one rusty hinge.

Just inside the walls were stained black, there was a large amount of wreckage from a fight and on the floor was the charred outline of a body where a flame curse had burnt one of the houses inhabitants, it appeared to be male.

His father.

He had died trying to protect his wife and son.

Harry saw a wand lying discarded on the floor under an upturned table at the other end of the hall, presumably where it had been thrown during the battle. Those who found his father had obviously not seen it.

He bent down and picked it up, brushing the dust off it, he held it in his hand. It was the same length as his own; he remembered Mr. Ollivander's words exactly.

"_Your father, on the other hand, favoured a mahogany wand. Eleven inches."_

He had never found out what was in the core of his father's wand.

Or in his mothers.

"_Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow." _

He pocketed the wand and turned to follow the black marks up the stairs, the marks had now turned into ascending shoeprints.

The occasional black smear could be seen on the walls or the banister where Voldemort's cloak had brushed against them but most of the time there was just the continuing footprints.

Not much nature had reached the upper floor of the house; it was mostly just dirt and dust.

The footprints led around to the left to a room where the door was lying on the floor, now stained with the same black footprints.

As Harry entered the room, he could sense the magic present there, the whole room was saturated with it, he didn't even want to attempt to do magic here, a simple lighting charm would probably blind him.

The room held a bed, dresser and in one corner a cot; hanging over the side were a child's clothes.

Harry picked it up a garment and turned it over in his hands, he had worn it once, long ago.

Putting it back he turned to the rest of the room, the bed clothes held a slight indentation where a body had dropped onto it, ruffling the quilt.

The arms had fallen above the head and a few red hairs lay attached to a hairbrush at the top of the bed.

His mother's hair, preserved by some fluke of magic, probably due to the massive amount of power that had been released when Voldemort was defeated.

He picked up a few and ran them through his fingers until they all ran in the same direction.

He noticed that the hair was a deeper shade of red than that of Ginny and the Weasley's.

He now had something of both his parents.

He carefully stored them in a pocket, making a mental note to find some way to preserve them, they might only be hairs but along with his father's wand they were his only real links to both his parents.

He turned and walked to a partially opened window. Plucking a flower off a branch that had snaked its way into the gap; he returned to the bed and laid it down where his mother's would have lain.

He walked round to the side of the bed; the quilt on this side of the bed had been pulled as if something or someone had slid off the bed and onto the floor, a meter away from the bed a large black circle stained the floor where the footprints concluded, black patches that almost looked like spray marks covered the rest of the room, the originated from the black circle.

This was it.

This was the spot where his parent's murderer had been defeated by a child with only his mother's love as a defence.

Harry drew his father's wand again.

Here Harry decided.

Here Harry made his pledge.

His father died to save his family and his mother had died to save him.

And now his father's wand would be used to save the Wizarding World.

His father's wand would kill Voldemort.

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:14__th __September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Staff Quarters_

_Time:Late Evening_

As Harry got to his feet after emerging from the fireplace, Fleur moved to his side.

"Are you alright Arry?" she asked, the question relating more to Godrics Hollow than to his fall.

"I'm ok," he replied "I found a couple of things that I've brought with me but the rest can stay there for the time being."

"What things?" asked Fleur.

Harry pulled out his father's wand then carefully extracted his mother's hair; he had managed to remove quite a lock from the hairbrush.

Fleur looked at the hairs for a moment before looking up at him sympathetically.

"If you give those to the Goblins, they may be able to preserve them."

"I'll do that." Nodded Harry "But before that we have two students two recruit."

"Eermione and Ron?" she asked.

"Yes." He nodded "Can you go and get them while I tell your parents we need to borrow the training room."

"Of course Arry." she nodded turning and walking out of the room, relieved that he didn't seem too affected by his visit.

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:14__th __September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Gryffindor Common Room_

_Time:Late Evening_

"How do you think Harry will be when he gets back?" Asked Hermione as she paced up and down the Common Room.

"He was ok when he saw the graves so he should be ok seeing the house." Replied Ron from his laid back position on the settee "But there is no way for us to know, so there is no need to keep PACING!" He said loudly, startling Hermione out of her line of thought.

Her anxiousness had already cleared everyone else out of the Common Room; it was amazing how distracting a pacing prefect could be.

As soon as the portal swung open Hermione was there, not even giving Fleur a chance to speak.

"Is he back? How is he? How did he..."

"Hermione!" called Ron "Give her a chance to speak."

Hermione blushed in embarrassment before turning back to Fleur for her response.

"Arry seems ok, but he would like you both to meet him."

"Why didn't he come here?" asked Hermione.

"He wants to meet you in private." Explained Fleur.

"Where?" asked Ron, standing up.

"Follow me." She explained, turning around and walking out of the portal, the others following behind.

She led them down the stairs, through several hallways, down into the Entrance Hall and out onto the grounds, much to the student's surprise. As she stepped onto the grass she cast Disillusionment charms on them, before leading the confused pair towards the edge of the wards, the two students were mystified as to where they were going. 

As soon as they reached the edge she cast the charm that Adam had taught her to temporarily 'numb' the wards around them, the spell only worked on a very small area for less than ten seconds and repetitive use reduced the effect, not to mention the fact that it was extremely draining on the users magic.

Ushering the pair across, she just got through before the wards adapted and returned to normal.

She then withdrew a quill from her pocket before holding it out to the pair.

"Take a hold."

"Where are we going?" asked Hermione.

"You will find out in a moment, don't worry your perfectly safe."

Uncertainly the pair took a hold of the quill before feeling the familiar tug of a portkey.

* * *

Landing hard Hermione and Ron rolled to the floor in the training room. 

"Sorry, I forgot to warn you, taking a portkey through wards can be uncomfortable."

"We're ok." Commented Hermione as they climbed to their feet "Where are we?"

"The Chateau Delacour." Said Harry as he walked in through the door "How was the trip?"

"Bumpy." Replied Ron, rubbing his leg where he had landed on it.

"Harry, what are we doing here?" asked Hermione.

"You're here to be recruited, take a seat and we will explain."

"What do you mean, be recruited?" asked Hermione, Ron having to push her towards the circular table in the middle of the room as she seemed quite content to just stand where she was and demand answers.

"As you know there are two forces outside the Ministries battling for who will control Wizarding Britain; The Order and The Death Eaters." explained Fleur "You are here to be recruited into the third group; The Alliance."

"The Alliance?" asked Hermione, surprised by what she was hearing "I've never heard of it."

"You wouldn't have, it's only been in existence since this summer, but already its leader has saved your life twice."

"Its leader has...the masked man!" exclaimed Hermione "You're allied with him?"

"Yes, he's called The Avatar, but not just with him," smiled Harry "We have many allies including The Veela Colonies, The Goblin Parliament and the House Elf Parliament."

"Bloody Hell!"

"Ron, don't swear." Said Hermione automatically, though she thoroughly agreed with the statement. "Are you serious Harry, what about Dumbledore and the Order?"

"Dumbledore is a fool." replied Harry, making Hermione gasp "All he ever does is watch and wait. He is extremely intelligent and very powerful I admit, and also a very good ally but he is reactive not proactive, whereas The Alliance is."

"We are not actually against Dumbledore," explained Fleur "We have the same objective, but we actively seek it rather than just waiting for Voldemort to act."

"How do you mean?"

"We want to end the string of small conflicts, we want to stop the small surprise attacks on individuals and actually face Voldemort and his Death Eaters in one huge battle to end them once and for all."

There recruits were silent for several seconds before Ron managed to ask:

"Have you gone stark raving bonkers?"

Harry snorted before replying.

"Possibly, but none the less, it is the only way to end the war once and for all."

"These small battles will just mean reduced numbers for both sides who will then rebuild and the cycle will start again." Added Fleur.

"Point taken." Nodded Ron, Hermione seemed much more hesitant, Harry had known that she would be harder to sway to the cause; she respected Dumbledore despite everything and liked authority, order and rules. Hopefully now that she knew what the Dursley's had done to Harry due to Dumbledore's slackness she wouldn't follow him so blindly.

"Why are you involved in this, I know that we cannot totally separate ourselves from the war but is going and looking for trouble really a good idea, why not just continue schooling until the trouble comes to you?"

"Because I can't." replied Harry "You remember that prophecy in the Department Of Mysteries last year."

They nodded.

"It was about me and Voldemort, given to Dumbledore by Trelawney, it said: 'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches...born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not...and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives...the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies'."

During his recitation Hermione had gasp as she realised what it meant.

"Simply put, at the end it's got to be him and me alone."

Hermione immediately got up and moved around to Harry, dropped to her knees in front of him and hugged him tightly.

"Harry," she said pulling him tighter against her "You won't be alone...no one is ever alone as long as they have friends and as so long I am your friend neither shall you. I will stick with you until the end."

"So will I." Nodded Ron firmly.

A little stunned by their reaction Harry uncertainly pulled away from Hermione; he could see Fleur beaming beside him.

"Err, Hermione, that wasn't me saying I want to do this alone to protect you, that was just me saying I have to kill him and no one else can."

"Oh." Blushed Hermione, realising she had completely misinterpreted his statement.

"But thank you, none the less." He added with a smile, giving Hermione a chance to get off her knees and return to her seat.

"Who else is in 'The Alliance'?" asked Hermione, obviously wanting to know more before committing and taking full advantage of the chance to change the subject "Anyone we know?"

"Tonks and Bill."

"What!" shouted Ron "Why did you ask them before us?"

"We didn't," replied Fleur "Bill recognised Colette and myself when we went with The Avatar to Eermione's house; he ambushed us when we got back here, volunteered and then we jointly recruited Tonks."

"Anyone else we should know about?" continued Ron half laughed.

"Just my parents, Madam Maxime, Mr Ollivander, Colette of course and Viktor."

"Oh, not many people then." Exclaimed Ron sarcastically.

"What's the overall objective of 'The Alliance'?" asked Hermione, starting to ask the sensible questions.

"Defeat Voldemort, act where the Order watches, fight when the Ministry does nothing and oppose anyone who threatens any of our members whether they be individual, organisation or government." Explained Harry.

There were several seconds of silence before Hermione added.

"So nothing too big then."

"Do you deny that it needs to be done?" asked Harry.

"Well of course it needs to be done but I'm just surprised that someone's actually doing it." Explained Hermione "What else are you trying to do?"

"Before I answer that, you need to agree to join us." Explained Harry "We can't tell you anymore until we know your allegiance."

"Do you trust this...'Avatar' Harry?" asked Hermione.

"He has my full trust." Replied Harry, he heard Fleur mentally snicker at the question "And even if he does not, the Court of Commanders, of which we are both members can stop him if they want to."

"What would we be required to do?" Hermione added.

"At the moment nothing, we along with the House Elves are the Avatars eyes and ears at Hogwarts, we have many non-human allies but we need to recruit as many people as we can, preferably people who already have skills that we could use, like Order members and the DA. But at some point of course you will need to fight and you already know of the risks involved in that."

Hermione thought for several very long seconds before answering, almost making Harry think she would say no.

"Ok Harry, I'll join."

Ron also nodded "If you think I'm being left out, you've got another thing coming."

Harry grinned widely at his friends.

"I knew I could count on you." He smiled as he withdrew the Treaty and a quill from his pocket before handing it over; he watched as Ron and Hermione read the document, after several minutes Hermione placed the Treaty on the table and signed before handing the quill to Ron who also signed.

There was the short flash of light before the rings appeared and their names disappeared from the document.

"What are these?" asked Ron, holding up his rings.

"It's a sign of your membership, like the coins from the DA. It's so others can recognise you are a member without saying anything; they can only be seen by those also wearing a ring." Harry and Fleur brought their hands into view so that their rings could be seen while their newest recruits donned theirs.

Slipping on hers, Hermione looked at their silver rings and compared it to her own.

"What is the significance of the colour?"

"Rank." Replied Harry "Silver means you are a member of the Court, Bronze means you are normal member and there is a single gold ring worn by The Avatar. All new members since the initial signing are to become Bronze members unless several Court members agree to let them join the Court."

"The Court members are the only people who know the true identity of The Avatar," explained Fleur "But in answer to your earlier question, currently the House Elves are busy doing espionage on the Death Eaters and others to find out as much as they can, the Veela and Goblins are preparing for a war and the humans are busy recruiting more people, Madam Maxime and my parents here in France, Viktor in Germany and Bulgaria, Tonks at the Ministry and us at Hogwarts and amongst the Alumni."

"I take it you're thinking big then."


	73. CH73 Hot Under The Caldera

Chapter 73 – Hot Under The Caldera 

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:15__th __September 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:Afternoon_

The next morning Harry, Fleur and Tonks Apparated to the Chateau. Sliding the Time Turner out of her pocket, Fleur held out the chain for the others before winding the hands back six hours.

As the room stopped spinning Dimitri and the Elder Dwarf, whose name Harry discovered was Kcor (pronounced 'cor'), came into view. Dimitri was garbed in a slim fitting set of robes that looked like a set of smart robes had been adapted to allow easier movement in the event of a dangerous situation, the Dwarf was wearing a smart suit but unlike a normal suit the fabrics were a lot thicker, suggesting that what he heard about Dwarfs wearing armour at all times was correct, Harry wondered if the waist coat the Dwarf was wearing had a sheet of metal in it for protection.

He, himself, was garbed in duelling robes, not that he would be wearing them long, whilst Fleur was wearing a dress with a long slit up one leg, reaching dangerously high, to allow easy movement in case of trouble and lastly Tonks was wearing her Auror uniform minus her identification.

"Right on time." Smiled Dimitri.

"Very funny." Replied Tonks "Shall we get moving?"

"One moment," Harry said as his ring finished casting spells on him leaving him dressed as The Avatar. "Now we're ready."

Dimitri withdrew a length of silk from a pocket of his robe and held it out for them, as the last of them touched the fabric they experienced the pull as the portkey was activated.

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:15__th __September 2001 AD_

_Country:Italy – Aeolian Islands_

_Location:Stromboli – The Halls of Stromboli_

_Time:Morning_

The Group landed hard, all just managing to stay upright, except for Tonks, who managed to trip over her own feet.

"Blimey, that was uncomfortable." Exclaimed Tonks as she straightened up, rubbing her behind where she had landed on it. "So where are we?"

They group appeared to be on a rocky slope of a mountain, the top of which was only about five meters above them, someone appeared to be burning something at the top as a huge amount of smoke was rising from the summit. Looking down they saw that the slope continued down until it met the sea, there were a large number of house near the shoreline.

"Stromboli." Explained Dimitri.

"Bless you." Replied Tonks.

"It's the name of the island." Dimitri elaborated.

"Why is it so hot?" asked Harry.

"That would be the temperature wards on the area and the fact we are standing near the rim of an active volcano."

"We're what?" exclaimed Tonks "Why on earth are we on a volcano?"

"Because that's where the Valkyrie's live." Replied Kcor sarcastically.

"And they like the heat." Added Dimitri, as he turned upwards and led the group up a path "They use heating wards where it is too cool like out here and cooling wards where the volcano makes it too hot to survive. So while it is very hot for us it is just right for the Valkyrie."

As they reached the top they were hit by a wave of heat from the crater they were standing atop, looking down Harry could see that the stream of smoke he had seen was emerging from several large cracks in the base of the crater which connected together at a ten meter wide circular pool of lava from which an awful lot of the smoke was emerging. Interestingly, though, the smoke did not obscure the walls or the base of the crater, as the smoke was obviously being manipulated by magic. The smoke gathered from all the cracks in a tidy circular column above the pool before spiralling up in a neat double helix to the rim of the crater before continuing on as normal, creating the natural plumes of smoke Harry had seen earlier. But the charmed smoke was not the most fascinating thing about the scene, the fact that their appeared to be people living in the crater was.

All around the crater wall, houses had been carved into the dark stone, doorways led into the walls of the crater, presumably where the Valkyrie's that were currently walking around below the smoke plume were living.

The group saw three Valkyrie walking up carved stone steps towards them.

Harry mentally recalled all he had been told about the species:

The Valkyrie's, like Veela, were natural Animagi. They could transform into ravens (though unlike Veela they were the size of real life ravens rather than human sizes birds) and rode into battle on a vicious large variety of wolves that the Wizarding World had dubbed Fire Wolves, due to their liking for extreme heats. Legend says Valkyrie's were a purely female race that flew over battlefields and took the most heroic of the dead warriors to Valhalla, the Halls of the Dead in Norse Mythology, whereas the Wizarding World told that that was just what they told the survivors so they could take the bodies away and eat them at their leisure, others said they fed them to their Fire Wolves and still more said that they wanted the bodies for religious ceremony to sacrifice to the volcano, no one knew if any of these were really true or not as Valkyrie's rarely left the volcano's and the surrounding islands and their relationship with the Wizarding world normally meant mutually ignoring each other. There were as many theories floating around about the Valkyrie's as there were about Veela and their mating. After the mating Harry had looked up more about the process and had read peoples theories about the balance of power; some said that the Veela became slaves to their mates will, others said the reverse; that Veela became super dominant and that their mate, although experiencing the full passion and pleasure of being a Veela's mate was completely controlled and subservient, of course in reality the relationship was much more balanced.

The Valkyrie's were both male and female, tall, had a darker complexion than the average European, like someone whose bloodline originated from around the sunniest parts of the Mediterranean, their hair was black and fell to mid back, their eyes, unlike human eyes that from the outside in appear white, a colour then the black iris, where black, red and then a black iris.

The Valkyrie had thin bodies like those of Veela, but unlike Veela they appeared more muscular than they did fair. They were definitely elegant but their appearance did not necessarily give the impression of good or evil, Harry guessed that like Veela they could look a lot more dangerous if they wanted to. The best description Harry could come up with for them was that they were similar to Veela except everything that was light in appearance for Veela was dark for the Valkyrie.

Two of the Valkyrie in front of them were garbed in what looked like soot covered gold armour with red and black fabrics underneath, all the armour was adorned with triangular motifs, both held spears and wore teardrop shaped helms that extended out behind their heads for aerodynamics. The last Valkyrie, the one in the centre was garbed in rich flowing red and black fabrics with highlights and fastenings of gold.

As the three reached them the male guards bowed slightly while the female Valkyrie curtsied.

"Greetings Avatar, Master Of Elements. Greetings Dimitri of the Council of Power. Greetings Fleur, Master of Fire. Greetings Nymphadora, Master of Forms and greetings Kcor Master of Stone." Said the female "I am Sigrdifa First Daughter of King Thor XVII, Monarch of the Halls. On behalf of the King I bid you welcome to The Halls of Stromboli."

Harry bowed low in reply, trying hard not to think that the name of the volcano sounded like some sort of pasta dish.

"Thank you for your gracious welcome, Sigrdifa, First Daughter of the King." Replied Harry, remembering what Dimitri had told him about the formal greeting customs of the Valkyrie's "May your halls continue to burn for a thousand years."

Sigrdifa bowed again at his greeting before half turning towards the slope.

"Please follow me; I shall take you to the King."

Sigrdifa began to lead them down into the volcano, one of the guards moved to the head of the party while the other took position at the end of their small column of people.

As they proceeded down the slope they could see what else resided within the crater, on the far side Harry could see a fenced off area, within which Fire Wolves were prowling around, every so often one would lunge at another and they would fight for a bit, ripping fur and tearing skin until one of their handlers broke them up. The wolves themselves stood as tall as a horse and had a build as heavy as that of a rhino, though they were a lot more agile, their heads were large but unlike normal wolves they were rounder and their snouts shorter. Not the sort of creature you wanted to encounter on a dark night.

As they continued to descend Harry felt the temperature rise further, he was now certain that if it were not for the large amount of cooling wards keeping the temperature down and keeping the ash and smoke away, they would already be dead.

Reaching the bottom of the crater, Sigrdifa began leading them towards a large flight of steps that descended into the craters base; it was guarded by six soldiers. Many Valkyrie's watched as they passed, their faces were hard to read in the near dark that existed below the smoke cloud, the only light around them came from the molten lava that resided in the central pool, in the cracks and the few outlets in the walls from which the lava was flowing before running down into the cracks just before the liquid turned solid and set hard.

Heading down the steps they then followed the wide corridor underneath for several meters before they came face to face with a wall of molten lava, falling like a curtain in front of them.

Sigrdifa said something in Valkyrie that made no sense to anyone else; the language was unsurprisingly very similar to the cawing of a raven. A few seconds past before a gap began to appear in the wall as the lava was somehow redirected leaving a gap around four feet wide.

Stepping through, Sigrdifa began walking the length of the hall they emerged into. It was not overly tall, no more than eight feet high, though the sealing was expertly carved with triangular engravings, the hall was at least ten meters wide, all down the length of the hall on each side of their current path were holes in the ceiling, through which more lava flowed before exiting through holes in the floor, creating the illusion of rows of columns.

At the far end of the hall were two small lava outlets in the wall that flowed down into a triangular shaped depressions in the floor, forming a small moat around a triangular shaped throne, on which sat a bald Valkyrie with his head lowered so they could not see his eyes, he was tall, at least six foot five and from what they could see of his face, looked grumpy and annoyed that they were even in his halls.

As they reached the Throne, Sigrdifa bowed.

"King Thor XVII, Monarch of the Halls, allow me to introduce The Avatar, Master of Elements. Dimitri, of the Council of Power. Fleur, Master of Fire. Nymphadora, Master of Forms and Kcor, Master of Stone."

As she finished the King raised his head to reveal two bright red eyes that appeared to burn like the lava around him, he should have been incinerated by the very proximity of the molten liquid, evidence of more heat preventing wards.

He turned his inhuman eyes to Harry and looked him up and down.

"You're The Avatar." He stated flatly "Prove it."

Harry took a step forward before making a sharp upward motion with his arms.

On queue all the lava in the moat around the King jumped up, forming a triangular band of molten liquid hovering at shoulder level, slowly rotating as the outlets began to refill the small moat.

Another gesture later and the lava triangle turned to the vertical so that it was spinning in front of Harry, a few more gestures and the band began to spin faster as a sphere of wind formed in Harry's other hand, whipping his hair around his face.

Placing the sphere in the air beside the triangle, Harry began to push the two closer together.

The others watched fascinated as the sphere slowly came in contact with the triangle and began to cool the molten liquid, making it turn to stone, they watched as he expertly shaped the edges of the rock until a perfectly sharp edged triangle of stone hung in the air before dropping to the floor with a loud thud, standing on one of its flat edges.

"Impressive," replied the King flatly, almost taunting Harry "But why should I join your little band of merry men when I am perfectly safe here in my volcano."

"Because your people are warriors," replied Harry "And a war is coming, a large war, a war between wizards and witches, a war between good and evil, Werewolf and Veela, Goblin and Giant, a world war...A war of magic."

Harry paused for dramatic affect, when did he get so good at these speeches, this one sounded like the sort you would hear in a film.

"Every sentient magical species will be involved, they will either be voluntary fighters or they will be dragged in, but in the war they will be, the question you have is which side will you back?"

"Very dramatic." Replied the King, still not moving "I shall consider your words, dismissed."

Tonks and Fleur raised eyebrows at the king's audacity and lack of respect for Harry.

Bowing they were led out of the hall by Sigrdifa.

As they left the hall Sigrdifa dropped back level with Harry.

"I apologise for my fathers disrespect Avatar, he will seriously consider your proposal."

"I understand," nodded Harry "This is his Kingdom, he doesn't want to show weakness to someone like myself. He..."

As they neared the flight of stairs Harry was interrupted by a loud cawing in Valkyrie.

"What's happening?" asked Dimitri.

The response that came was not what any of them expected.

Harry heard a pair of grunts, both female, followed by thuds as two bodies hit the floor.

Harry didn't have time to react to as he felt a heavy impact on the side of his head, throwing him into the tunnel wall.

The last thing he remembered was hearing the grunts of Kcor struggling against something before he lost his vision.

* * *

AUTHOR NOTE: Sorry it took so long to get the next chapter out, all it needs to slow the system down is for me or one of my beta's to be a bit busy and I think we have all been a bit busy of late, hence the lateness of this chapter 


	74. CH74 The Element Of Earth

Chapter 74 – The Element Of Earth

FLASHBACK

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:Unknown_

_Country:Unknown_

_Location:Unknown_

_Time:An Eternity In A Second_

"Could we not have gone somewhere a bit warmer?" asked Harry, shivering slightly because of the strong winds.

"We are here to refine your elemental skills, specifically the skill of moving earth, rocks and plants, thusly we needed to go somewhere with a concentration of those elements." Explained Adam "You have your wand, you can cast a warming charm on yourself if you are cold."

The pair were standing in a small clearing at the base of a cliff somewhere, Harry guessed it was somewhere in Mexico or South America because of the lush rainforest like foliage that met the base of the cliff around the clearing.

"Just like you do with the other elements you need to force the element to do what you want," explained Adam "Thusly."

Walking over to a large bolder he proceeded to move into a firm stance before kicking it hard.

Harry winced as Adam's foot met the stone but was surprised when the bolder went flying in the direction it was kicked as if a wrecking ball had hit it.

"You used your strength to do that." Accused Harry.

"I did not." replied Adam calmly, stepping to the side before slamming his foot into the ground, sending a large rock lying in the dirt three meters away out of the ground with such a force that it flew ten meters into the air before it began to fall only to be punched by Adam as it fell, shattering it into thousands of pieces.

"When you have mastered the skill, you will be able to do almost anything you can imagine with that element."

END FLASHBACK

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:15__th __September 2001 AD_

_Country:Italy – Aeolian Islands_

_Location:Stromboli – The Halls of Stromboli_

_Time:Unknown_

As Harry regained consciousness he became aware of voices near him.

Remembering what had happened prior to his current state, he recalled that he had been visiting the Valkyrie's and that he was currently disguised as The Avatar.

Opening his eyes he saw that he was in a dark room, lit only by the light of three torches hanging on the walls.

He realised he was chained up with his arms restrained out to his side, his hands encased in lumps of rock (preventing him from moving his fingers so that he could not access his elemental powers), that were attached to heavy chains which led to weights hanging on the other side of the room; he was held high enough off the ground so that his feet could not reach the floor.

In front of him two male Valkyrie were arguing in English.

"Look, we tried pulling it off and it didn't work, we have to attach the weights to the mask and tear it off."

"And rip his head off along with it. The mask is magically attached to his head, it won't come off unless he takes it off, and remember Lord Voldemort wants him alive."

Harry eyes widened under his mask, the Valkyrie were already working for Voldemort; they invited them here to capture them, they had no intention of joining them.

But that was not important at the moment, right now he needed to get free and then find the others, and if there was so much as a scratch on any of them the Valkyrie's would pay.

Realising the guards thought him unconscious he returned his head to a hanging position. They could not see that his eyes were open through the mask.

And they also did not realise that he didn't need his hands to control the elements.

Turning his attention to one of the torches on the wall he began to raise and lower his eyebrows.

He continued to do so as the flame slowly increased in size. Controlling an element like this was very draining so he had to act quickly.

Luckily the guards were still too caught up in their argument (which had switched into Valkyrie) to notice as Harry began to direct the flame to flow through the air with his tongue, moving in little wisps to gather behind one of the guards; luckily the torch was directly behind him so even the one that was looking in the right direction could not see the fire.

Harry continued to use his tongue to draw the flame into a ball right behind the first guard.

It took almost five minutes for it to reach the size of a cricket ball without attracting attention, taking a greatly needed breath, Harry then rapidly jutted his head to the right.

The ball of fire flew into the back of the guard, sending him flying into his companion and both hard into the wall, knocking both unconscious.

Smiling in satisfaction Harry then turned his attention to freeing himself.

Breathing hard for several minutes he then began concentrating hard on the restraints, he focused on the slightly loose grip that the cable had on the stone encasing his left hand. Using sharp jerks of his head to move bits of grit from around the pin.

As he removed more and more, the pin got looser and looser until all of a sudden it slipped out, the weights on the other side of the room dropping to the floor with a crash as his arm fell to his side, the hard stone still encasing his hand making it drop like a lead weight into his leg as his back slid along the rough wall to hang by his single restrained arm.

Harry muffled a grunt as the lump of stone collided hard with his thigh and at the immense pain now tearing through his single restrained arm as all his weight was now hanging on his wrist.

Turning his attention to his other arm he, with enormous effort, swung his free arm up so that the stone restraints smashed into one another, shattering both lumps of stone, letting him drop to the floor in a shower of rock.

Waiting for the dust and the stone fragments, he attempted to climb back to his feet, attempting to support himself on his arm.

He was surprised when it collapsed out from under him, his nerve endings flaring in complaint, he had to grit his teeth to stop himself crying out in pain.

He must have done something to his shoulder when he was hanging from that wrist.

Climbing to his feet again, he let his right arm hang at his side, hopefully he could prevent further damage to it as he escaped, unfortunately even his Water Elemental skills could not heal the injury when he did not know what the problem was and he could not see the injury.

Moving over to the entrance he carefully looked through the bars in the window at the top of the door.

He saw an empty corridor that seemed to continue on for quite a way in both directions.

Moving back, he raised his useful hand, extended the fingers towards the stone around the door, before pulling back sharply and curling his fingers, whilst spinning and dropping to the floor defensively.

The wall creaked and a few stones cracked under the strain but nothing more.

Turning to the wall again he once again extended his hand before pulling and dropping to the floor and spinning into a defensive position.

The stone exploded out of the wall, bringing the door with it.

The stone smashed into the ground around Harry, denting and chipping the stone floor of the cell. One piece bounced of his good shoulder, creating a massive bruise and causing him to grunt in pain.

Hearing the door drop to the floor behind him, he slowly stood up, breathing heavily as he tried to recover from the energy drain of moving the stone, not just one handed but with his left hand which he was not as strong with.

Stepping out into the hallway, he checked it was clear before choosing a direction and beginning to walk.

He looked into several of the rooms he passed; most were either empty or contained stores of weapons and food. Passing one he spotted three wands lying on a table.

Back tracking he walked in and picked them up, identifying them as Fleur's, Tonks and Dimitri's. His was still within his cloak; a fact that he had forgotten when he let himself out of his cell, simply casting an unlocking charm would have been a lot less draining than shifting the stones.

Pocketing the wands he looked around the room and spotted one of his swords, Fleur's sais and an axe of Dwarven design. Pocketing them he examined the rest of the room but not being able to see his other sword or any other weapon of interest he turned and made his way towards the door.

As he neared the door he saw a pair of shadows approaching.

Leaning against the wall he waited until the shadows passed, before moving out into the hall and falling into step behind them, the two Valkyrie were armour plated and their footfalls and the clinking of their armour were rather loud, though he had not heard them whilst he was inside the armoury.

Harry guessed that there must be localised silencing charms around the doorways so that sound did not leave the rooms, he would have to look into every room as he went to make sure he did not go passed the cells of any of the others without knowing it.

He kept following the guards who were completely oblivious to his quiet footfalls around several corners before he caught a sight of some movement in a cell.

Stopping he looked back and saw a furiously fighting Tonks chained to the wall like he had been, screaming out insults at the three guards in front of her. One Valkyrie was lying on the floor holding his groin where Tonks had obviously kicked him, another was just moving a sword, HIS sword, to her throat to attempt to get her to stop struggling and the last of his friends was thoroughly enjoying himself, groping her chest through her Auror robes.

Harry's anger spiked as he observed the scene, his whole mind raged in anger at what he was seeing. Drawing his wand he opened the door, before replacing his wand and charging into the room.

He caught a glimpse of Tonks relieved face as he threw one of his fists forward, sending a blast of fire at the Valkyrie holding his sword, sending him and the sword flying into the wall beside Tonks before dropping to the floor.

His friend spun around only to have Harry's other sword swing through the air towards him

The Valkyrie collapsed to the floor in pain, staring at the stumps that had once been his fingers.

The one holding his groin never got a chance to stand as one swipe of Harry's sword cut deep into his neck, killing him instantly before Harry turned back to his fingerless friend.

He moved and stood over the terrified Valkyrie and aimed his sword at his throat.

"You touched my friend with that hand, and now you will never be able to touch anything ever again."

"Please...don't kill me." begged the guard, who Harry was sure was now regretting removing his armoured gloves before he copped a feel.

"Oh I'm not going to kill you." Said Harry darkly, kneeling over the shaking guard, making him look as dangerous as possible "I'm going to let you live so you remember never to touch anything that doesn't belong to you."

In one rapid movement Harry then lifted the sword point from the guard's neck before smashing the hand guard into his face, knocking him unconscious.

Standing up he moved to stand in front of Tonks.

"Are you alright?"

"I am now," she smiled "He only started about three seconds before you came in, his other friend," she said looking to the guard with the slit throat "Got about eight seconds in before I got him in the nuts. Could you err...get me down?"

"Of course." Nodded Harry, trying to think how best to do this without causing her injury like that which had happened to him. As an idea came to him he recovered his swords and replaced them, kneeling down in front of her and putting his knee beside her feet.

"What in Merlin's name are you doing?" she asked, looking down at him, shrinking her chest slightly so she could see him properly.

"I'm trying to get you down without injuring you, when I released myself I think I dislocated my shoulder."

"Ah, ok then," she nodded "What do you want me to do?"

"Stand your feet on my leg," he explained "That way when I release the first chain you won't drop, just try not to let the stone restraint hit your leg...Or me, please."

"Ok," nodded Tonks as she put her weight on Harry's leg "Ready."

"Three. Two. One."

A powerful cutting curse shot out of Harry's wand and sliced straight through the cable.

Tonks slumped a bit but did not tip forward or fall; she slowly lowered her arm so as not to risk injuring either of them before relaxing her muscles as she let her arm hang.

"Ok," nodded Harry "I'm going to cut the other one, rest the stone on my shoulder so that you are balanced, ready?"

"Ready."

"Three. Two. One."

Another cutting curse released her other arm, sending the weight smashing into the floor and letting Tonks lower her arm.

Tonks carefully stepped off Harry's leg.

"Great, now...how do I get rid of these?" she said raising her stone covered hands.

"Well I could try to pick the lock holding them shut or you could just slam them together like I did."

Tonks opted for the latter and immediately threw her arms together, sending chunks of rock and dust everywhere.

"Oh, that's so much better." She smiled, flexing her fingers before turning on the now fingerless Valkyrie.

Slowly walking over to him, she very carefully aimed and then rammed her foot at full speed into his groin.

Harry actually winced at the force of the impact; the guy would be in pain for days, and that was if he was lucky, he would be permanently damaged if he wasn't, but either way Harry doubted he would ever be a father.

Satisfied with her work Tonks turned to Harry, walked up to him and pulled his mouth down to hers.

Harry stood stunned as she passionately kissed him until she pulled back.

Harry didn't move for several seconds before managing.

"What was that?"

"That was for saving me from them." She smiled, before moving to look at his injured shoulder "Besides, now you know what you're missing." She grinned, adding a cheeky wink before gently touching his shoulder, making him gasp in pain "Yes, that's definitely dislocated. If I ha..."

She never got the chance to finish as Harry strode towards the wall and slammed his shoulder against the rock.

He let out a loud grunt as he did so before flexing his repaired arm, ignoring the lingering ache.

"I was about to say," said Tonks slowly "That if I had my wand I could have healed that painlessly."

"Oh, thanks for reminding me." He said as he reached into his pocket and withdrawing Tonks and Dimitri's wands before handing them to her "I've got all our weapons."

Taking the wands she raised an eyebrow at him. "Why did you force your shoulder back in rather then let me use my wand?"

"It was much more satisfying, I wanted to hit one of them," he said gesturing to the guards "But I get the feeling that if I hit the sole survivor I would probably kill him with the force of the impact and if he died he would never learn how to treat a Lady, so pushing my shoulder back in acted as a substitute."

Tonks shook her head before turning back to the guards.

"I don't think they were supposed to be in here anyway, by the way they snuck through the door I think they were supposed to be patrolling and just decided to take advantage of the situation, and if that doesn't teach them not to mess with Avatar's and Aurors nothing will."

"Shall we get moving?" He suggested, collecting his weapons before drawing a sword in his left hand and his wand in his right.

"Let's go kick some Valkyrie arse." She grinned before following him towards the door.

No sooner had they stepped out into the hallway when they heard a loud gong being rung.

"Damn," swore Harry "They must have discovered that I've escaped, we will have to move quickly."

"Which way did you come from?" asked Tonks as she turned back to her cell and started repairing the restraints and levitated one of the dead guards into place before roughly transfiguring his clothes and hair colour to look like her "That should confuse them for a bit, so which way?"

Harry pointed in the direction he came from before Tonks turned and ran in the opposite direction.

"Annoyingly the Valkyrie seem to have learnt not to keep prisoners in adjacent cells." she called back over her shoulder as they ran, taking glances into the surrounding cells as they went, a couple of times they saw decaying remains hanging from the walls, obviously prisoners they had killed or had died from some other cause "We can expect to run into resistance any minute now."

As they rounded a corner, they saw a pair of Valkyrie emerge from a turning further down the corridor.

Harry aimed his wand to curse them, but never got the chance to act as Tonks ran at the pair, jumped into the air, kicked off from the wall and caught one of the guards with a superb flying kick to the head, before landing, dropping to the floor, kicking the legs out from under the other and following it up with a punch to the nose as he hit the floor, leaving both unconscious, Harry suspected she may have still been a bit ticked off at being fondled.

Looking down at her handy work, Tonks nodded in satisfaction before turning to an open mouthed Harry, she guessed that under that mask his eyes had just jumped out of their sockets.

"What," she grinned "You thought all Auror's are taught to do is to fire curses."

"I did before." He admitted "Though I doubt I ever will again."

"Shall we?" she smiled, offering him point as they continued on down the hallway.

They turned around corner after corner after corner, taking down the half dozen guards they came across, but still found nothing.

"For goodness sake, what is this place," exclaimed Harry "The Minotaur's Labyrinth?"

"I'm beginning to wonder." Added Tonks, quickly glancing into another cell as they passed, before realising what she had seen and skidding to a stop "Hang on." She called as Harry came to hard stop to prevent himself colliding with her.

Doubling back to the door, Tonks looked into the room and saw a pair of swinging chains, putting her face right up to the bars so she could see what was hanging low on the opposing wall.

"We've found our resident stone cutter." She smiled to Harry before pointing her wand at the lock and letting them in.

No sooner had they crossed the threshold when they heard the stream of insults pouring from the Dwarfs mouth, luckily they were in Gobbledegook but they could guess what the words meant, he was so absorbed in insulting his absent captors that he didn't even notice them until he felt himself being lifted away from the wall and his wrists released.

"Avatar!" he said in surprise as he looked in astonishment as Harry cut through the chains, letting Tonks levitate him to the floor.

"Last time I checked." He smiled.

As soon as he touched the floor Kcor smashed his rock covered hands together.

"Ah, that's better, now if I only had my axe, I could teach tho..."

"Wish granted." Smiled Harry as he withdrew said axe from his cloak and handed it to the surprised Dwarf.

"Grand!" laughed Kcor, before shouting as a rallying call "Let's go and get those filthy Valkyrie."

They followed the Dwarf out the room and started running after him down the corridor only for him to stop dead after a few feet and dropped to the ground, pressing his palm to the floor.

Tonks came to such an abrupt halt that this time Harry did go flying into her but managed to keep them both upright.

"What can you feel Kcor?" asked Harry.

"We have three male Valkyrie heading this way, there are two more three corridors to the left and there are some chains hitting stone down that corridor."

"You can feel all that?" asked Tonks in astonishment.

Kcor stood and nodded proudly.

"And I thought I was good just being able to feel if someone was walking in the next room." Added Harry with a laugh "It's very complicated it is, feeling the different vibrations through the rock. After you Kcor."

The Dwarf took point and began to lead them towards where were he said the rattling chains where, rounding the next corner they came face to face with the three Valkyrie Kcor mentioned.

The Valkyrie never knew what hit them as they were blasted backwards by a jet of flame so big that it filled the corridor and scorched the walls.

Continuing on, the next pair were decapitated by a spinning axe which left the trio free to search for their restrained comrades.

"I've got Dimitri." Called Tonks as she opened a door and set to work releasing the Comte.

"Avatar," he called "Any sign of my daughter?"

"We haven't seen her yet," he replied worriedly before turning to Kcor "Can you feel her?"

Dropping to the floor, Kcor listened for a minute before shaking his head.

Harry was really worrying now, where could she...

_Arry, Arry, can you hear me?_

Harry breathed a sigh of relief then realised what a fool he had been to forget that they had a mental link.

_I hear you, are you alright?_

_I'm ok; I'm chained to a wall in a room that I think is not far from the stairs that go down to the hall we met the King in as I can hear falling lava._

_Is anyone with you?_

_No._

_Start rattling your chains_

_I beg your pardon?_

_So, that Kcor can hear you._

_Oh, ok._

"Do you hear chains now?" Harry asked.

"Yes, she's not far, only two corridors away, but it's hard to tell who else is nearby, there is a lot of moving lava around here, it's interfering with the vibrations."

"Let's go then." Said Dimitri, taking his wand from Tonks.

They quickly made their way to the corridor in question and found Fleur's room, except now it was guarded by half a dozen Valkyrie who charged them the second they saw the group.

Three of them were immediately felled by curses and the others were rapidly beaten back past the door by Kcor and Dimitri, learning the important life lesson that you should never get on the wrong side of an angry dwarf or an annoyed father.

Opening the door, Tonks and Harry rushed into the room.

"Arry." Sighed Fleur in relief "Thank goodness you are safe."

"I assure you the feeling is mutual." smiled Harry as Tonks levitated his mate while he drew both his and his father's wands and cut the cables, releasing her.

Tonks muttered a spell that released Fleur's hands from the rock restraints, allowing her to flow into Harry's arms; she kissed him passionately as he held her for several seconds before they sighed and separated.

"Thanks for rescuing me Arry." She smiled.

"If you two aren't too busy," called Dimitri from outside the room as a green spell went flying over his head "The Valkyrie have some friends."

The trio didn't hesitate, passing Fleur back her wand and sais the group stepped out into the corridor, firing curses as they went.

At the other end of the passage were two Valkyrie holding triangular shaped shields that were at least a foot and a half wide and five foot tall, allowing the four Death Eaters who had come up behind them to fire without having to worry too much about the large amount of the curses heading their way.

"The shields have anti-summoning charms on them." Called Dimitri as he ducked under another jet of green magic, he and Kcor were totally exposed in the narrow corridor and only rapid evasion had saved them serious injury up to this point.

Replacing his sword and wand Harry turned to Fleur and Tonks.

"Cover me." He said breathing deeply.

The pair had just put their heads around the corner as he went flying past them and sent a kick into the opposite wall, sending dust and rubble everywhere.

Through the haze, a hole just big enough for a human to step through (if he climbed over the rubble) appeared.

"Quickly." Called Harry, stepping back from the hole "Dimitri, Kcor, take cover in here, I've got an idea."

He watched, firing curses down the corridor, as Dimitri heaved Kcor through the hole before stepping through himself.

"Take cover." called Harry, causing the others to step back into the room as he stretched his arms out and upwards to the part of the tunnel roof above the Death Eaters; clenching his fists he yanked his hands down.

There was a crack as the ceiling above the enemy spell casters split open and the stone came tumbling down on top of the Valkyrie's and their allies.

Sticking her head out of the doorway she and Fleur had ducked into, Tonks looked at their now unconscious enemies.

"Very nice." She smiled.

"Agreed." Nodded Dimitri as he lifted Kcor back out the hole to rejoin the others in the hall.

"Shall we make ourselves scarce?" asked Tonks.

"I would suggest we do so very rapidly." Warned Dimitri, looking towards their fallen enemies, causing the others to follow his gaze.

Out of the hole in the ceiling magma was rapidly beginning to flow, covering their now deceased enemies and flowing in their direction.

"I agree with that suggestion." Nodded Harry as the group turned towards the way they had come and began to run.

They ran around several corners and were lucky enough to come face to face with a flight of stairs, but unlucky enough for Sigrdifa and a dozen guards to be standing in their way.

"You're not leaving." She announced, her kind demeanour completely gone., replaced with a look of fury.

"I will have to disagree." Replied Harry, moving to take point and drawing his swords.

Sigrdifa drew a pair of long thin blades similar to his rapiers except that the tips were curved to form hooks.

"Make us an exit, while I deal with her." He stated to the others before turning back to the Valkyrie princess "Let's dance."

The pair flew at each other, shortly followed by all the others in the hall.

Harry was aware of the others fighting but was too busy to pay them much attention. Sigrdifa was good, very good, she was matching him blow for blow.

He would aim for her neck and her blades would be there to block him, he aimed low and her feet were already out of the way.

They were perfectly matched, except he was sporting several injuries from his escape and previous fights.

One lucky attack caught him in the arm and leg making him disengage long enough for him to take in the rest of the scene.

Of the dozen guards who started the fight less than half that number were still moving, on his side Dimitri had received a large gash to his arm and Tonks had a bloodied nose but for the most part they were mostly unscathed.

He didn't have time to see more as Sigrdifa charged him.

She never reached him as he threw his hand at her, sending a blast of flame into her stomach, blasting her back against the stairs, knocking her unconscious, her charred dress smoking heavily.

Turning to the remaining enemies he sent two more blasts at the last two guards before turning to the others.

"Shall we?" he asked gesturing to the stairs.

They quickly ran up the stairs and emerged into the volcano.

Looking around they saw masses of guards, some riding Fire Wolves charging at them, there were also a few Death Eaters of in the distance who had just noticed them.

"The stairs. Quickly!" he shouted, clearing their way with two blasts fire, before leading the others towards the steps.

Extending one arm back he made a fist and pulled his arm around to his right, at the same time lava from one of the wall vents changed from flowing downward and flew as a large mass of burning liquid at the Fire Wolf coming at them on their left.

As it smashed into the side of the creature, it cried out in pain as the liquid seared its skin, making it trip, tumbling over its own legs to skid to a stop beside the group.

Reaching the stairs, Harry rushed everyone past him before extending his arms out to his sides and making fists.

With an almighty yell he pulled his fists together making two huge lumps of rock fly away from the walls of the volcano, huge streams of lava exploded out after them, sending Valkyrie fleeing as their volcanic home began to fill with molten liquid.

He watched as the craters inhabitants released the Fire Wolves who started climbing up the sheer rock cliffs, digging their claws into the stone, whilst their masters turned in to rooks and flew up with the smoke, attempting to escape their smouldering home, leaving the Death Eaters to scramble up the cliffs.

Nodding in satisfaction Harry turned and began to follow the others up the steps, if that did not keep the Valkyrie distracted whilst they made their escape, nothing would.

As he approached the top of the volcano's crater he sent a blast of air back behind him, propelling him up the last ten feet onto the rim, whilst simultaneously throwing a couple of Death Eaters that had made it to the slope flying back into the pooling larva.

Landing on the rim beside Fleur and Tonks, Harry collapsed from exhaustion.

"Are you alright?" asked Tonks as the women dropped to his side.

"To much..." he panted "Pulling rocks...Need...To rest."

"Quickly, make us a portkey!" called Tonks as she turned and muttered the spell that made the Guardian's mark appear above the volcano, the smoke swirling around it.

"As soon as possible!" urged Kcor who was watching the rooks forming into one large mass, about to dive and strike them on one side while the lava continued to rise behind them.

"Grab hold." Called Dimitri as he thrust his robe into their hands.

They disappeared in an instant, leaving the Valkyrie and their wolves to flee from the volcano as lava began to flow from the volcano and down its slopes.


	75. CH75 Spiders, Centaurs & Metamorph’s

Chapter 75 – Spiders, Centaurs & Metamorph's

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:15__th __September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Grounds_

_Time:Late Evening_

When Harry, Fleur and Tonks made it back to Hogwarts they were mostly clear of injuries thanks to some emergency medical attention at the Chateau (as well as some vigorous cleaning charms to get rid of all the soot and dirt), though Harry was still suffering from energy loss due to all the elemental skills he had been using in the last few hours, some fading bruises around his shoulders where the bolder had hit, where he had dislocated the other shoulder and finally where the stone restraint had slammed into his leg.

Tonks and Fleur had to support him all the way to their quarters, luckily no one saw them.

Setting him down on the bed, he immediately dropped back onto the pillow to recover.

"Thank you." He breathed.

"How did you get so exhausted?" asked Tonks "Is controlling the elements really that draining?"

"Your movement is directly proportional to the distance the element moves, the speed of the element and the amount of the element you are moving." he explained "Moving a one kilogram stone the same distance as your arms for example is easy. I had to start by using just my facial features to increase the size of a flame, then move it into a ball, maintain the ball and throw the ball with enough force to incapacitate two opponents before freeing myself. That alone was very draining; add to that, the door, all the flames, the ceiling and the crater walls, the last of which were magically strengthened, so I had to overcome not just the interlocking stone in the case of the ceiling and the door, and the natural join of the rock for the crater but the spells holding them that way, I was surprised I managed it."

"He will be ok," Explained Fleur "I've seen Colette like this when she has tried throwing fireballs continually for a long time, give him an hour or two and he will be fine."

"I'm more concerned about the Valkyrie siding with Voldemort. He is collecting allies, so we will have to move fast to get them before he does."

"Who shall we try to recruit next?" asked Tonks.

"We need to gain more human allies," replied Harry, his breathing a bit more normal now "So the DA, Remus probably too, then the Alumni from any of the three schools and any Auror's we think we can get. For now I have another idea which I will try out in a couple of hours."

"What?" asked Fleur.

"I'll tell you if it works." He grinned.

Two hours later, Harry made his way, after a quick detour to a bathroom, down towards the grounds.

Donning his invisibility cloak he made his way down towards the forest.

Once under the cover of the trees he removed the cloak and stored it where he could collect it later, before continued on through the trees, following the route he had taken years earlier.

Approaching the edge of the webbed area, he allowed the spiders that appeared to pick him up and carry him down into the hollow.

Once there he was dropped in front of the edge of the giant mass of silk webbing which led down to where Aragog and his mate lived.

There were excited chattering from the smaller spiders surrounding him, eager to get a taste of their latest prey.

He extended his arms out to his side to show he was unarmed, waiting for the patriarch to appear.

"Friend of Hagrid, you have returned." Came the slow, deep voice of Aragog "Do you wish to die?"

"No, but I have information you might find interesting."

"Continue." nodded the Acromantula after several seconds thought.

"The beast from the Chamber is dead."

There were clicks and hisses from the smaller spiders.

"Hagrid, told us as much, but without proof your fate is still death." Replied the spider, a lot quicker than before.

Reaching into his pocket, Harry withdrew a small bag, from it he withdrew an object which he dropped on the ground before returning it to its original size.

Many of the Acromantulas ran at the mere sight of the neatly severed Basilisk head, but most of the larger ones remained, either hissing angrily at Harry for daring to bring the thing into their hollow or chattering excitedly at proof that the creature was dead.

"Proof indeed." Chuckled the patriarch as he walked towards the head "Hagrid said you were the one to vanquish the beast?"

"I used the sword of Godric Gryffindor." He confirmed as Aragog hauled his huge bulk up onto the head, so that he was standing atop the beast.

Harry watched as other larger spiders also climbed up onto the sides of the beast, shortly followed by the smaller ones, then in one rapid movement, the arachnids all plunged their fangs into the beasts head and began to feed.

The spiders clicked and a few of the largest groaned at the taste of the Basilisks fluids.

It took several minutes for the spiders to drink their fill, Harry had used a cutting charm to sever the head and then he'd sealed the two halves of the body with a jet of flame, burning the exposed innards so as to prevent the blood covering the floor of the Chamber and his pocket, this luckily meant there was plenty of blood inside for the spiders who did not seem to complain that it was four years old, he supposed the magic around Hogwarts was so strong that it preserved the body.

He then watched as the Acromantulas climbed down and began to push the head so that it was positioned between three trees, one on either side of its neck and one covering the neck where its head was severed.

"You have done us a great service Friend of Hagrid," announced Aragog, returning to his hollow web lined corner of the hollow "But I suspect you did not come here just to give us this news."

"You are right, I did not." Nodded Harry, returning to his original position in front of the arachnid "I came to ask for your assistance, a war is coming and I would like you help in winning it."

There was much noise at his announcement, there was obviously some different views regarding this idea.

"Why should we join a human war?" asked Aragog.

"It is not just a human war," he replied "The Goblin's, House Elves and Veela Colonies are already on our side and the Valkyrie, Dementors, some Giants and some Werewolves are already on Voldemort's . The school is likely to be attacked at some point as both I and Dumbledore are here most of the time and if you are not with Voldemort he will consider you against him. And would it not be nice to get back at the thing that got our friend Hagrid expelled."

"What do you mean?" asked Aragog confused.

Harry drew his wand and replicated the young Riddle's name trick in reverse, when the name Riddle appeared in front of Aragog, he hissed out in anger causing many of the other spiders to scurry away in fear.

"That Dark Lord was the boy who got Hagrid expelled from the school?" hissed the spider.

"Yes." Harry replied.

"What is it you want of us?" asked the spider.

"Join us to help fight Voldemort, help defend us when we need your protection and send for us when you need ours, follow me to defeat the Dark Lord and restore peace to the world."

There was more clicking and hissing around them, some sounded like cheers and others angry shouts.

"Silence." Hissed Aragog, immediately earning quiet from his children, before turning back to Harry "How do I know you will come when we need you?"

Harry pulled out the contract, unrolled it and placed in on the ground for the spider to see.

"This is a magically binding contract to ensure what you have just asked, once you have signed it, you have to help us when we need help and we have to help you when you need help."

"Who is The Avatar?" asked the Acromantula as he inspected the document.

"I am," replied Harry "I use the guise of The Avatar to help fight without people knowing it is me."

There were several more moments of silence before Aragog moved forward and lightly touched his fang to the parchment, which then flashed to recognise its newest member, a very large silver ring appeared on the document, Aragog evidently understood its meaning as with the help of a pair of smaller spiders slid it up his left front leg.

"We follow you Avatar." Said Aragog formerly, doing the spider equivalent of a bow, all the other spiders mirrored his actions, as Aragog slowly stood he gestured for Harry to approach him.

"Come closer Avatar, I will give you the spiders mark; it will allow you to understand those of us that can not speak human."

Knowing that the contract would prevent him coming to harm at the hands of the spider he immediately knelt down in front of the spider.

"Extend the back of your hand." Again Harry did so immediately.

With one lightning quick jab Aragog just pierced the skin on the back of his hand with his fang, causing Harry to flinch back; worried for a second if the spider had somehow managed to bypass the contracts magic and had just poisoned him.

"I assure you Avatar that you are not at risk. Acromantulas can decide the toxicity of their venom. We are magical creatures after all."

Looking at the back of his hand Harry saw the black liquid that had been pushed under his skin swirl, partially change colour and form into the shape of a Black Widow Spider, a little bigger than his hand, its long legs stretching up his fingers and down onto his wrist.

Harry almost jumped out of his skin when the spider did just that.

The front pair of thin legs pulled their way out of his skin before pulling the rest of the body out behind them, leaving no mark on his skin.

The spider, turned around on his hand once before looking at him and bowing.

"Greetings Master, it is an honour to serve."

The spider's voice was distinctly female, but like Parseltongue it sounded just like human speech with a slight hiss to it.

"Hello." He replied. From the various gasps and exclamations from the other spiders he guessed that he must have spoken their language.

"She will allow you to understand and speak spider speech," explained Aragog "As well as being able to hide anywhere on your body. She can spy for you as well as being a covert assassin. She is an entirely magical being so although she can she does not need to eat or do anything else a normal spider would unless she wants to."

Harry nodded his understanding as his little spider pulled herself back into his skin appearing like a very realistic tattoo before seeming to walk up to the inside of his arm to were the Dark Mark would be on a Death Eater and stopped.

He stared at her for several minutes before turning back to Aragog.

"The ring will tell you when allies need help or to signal us that you need it. You don't have to go to every call, but if it's nearby..."

"Understood Avatar, we are in your debt, if there is any other way we can lend you our assistance, do not hesitate to ask. Farewell."

"Farewell." Smiled Harry before turning and beginning to walk out of the hollow, before stopping and part turning back "Actually, there is something you could do for me...

A satisfied Harry was walking back through the forest.

Having recovered his cloak he was now heading back towards the edge of the forest when he heard a twig snap to his left.

Coming to a stop he threw the cloak over him and dodged to the right before he was fully covered, then moved to the left once he was concealed.

Circling around to the left he came up behind the three centaurs aiming their bows in the direction they thought he had gone in.

Drawing his wand, he rapidly cast two body binds (which for a centaur just made them wobble about on all fours) before aiming his wand at the last.

"Hello Bane." He smiled "Lower the bow please."

Bane put the bow on the ground before turning towards him.

"Harry Potter," returned the centaur, not rudely but not overly nice either "Why have you entered our forest?"

"It is not your forest," Harry replied "It belongs to all the creatures that live here, the Centaurs, the Acromantulas, the Thestral's, the Unicorns and even Hagrid's brother, it belongs to all, why do you believe that you have priority over them?"

"We are the oldest and most intelligent species." Replied Bane firmly.

"Oldest maybe but not wisest." returned Harry, making Bane's eyes flare in anger "Would the wisest species attack and exile one of their own for agreeing to teach students your favourite pastime and greatest skill."

He visibly saw Bane flinch at the implication.

"If you really were the wisest species you would be helping us fight Voldemort rather than hiding in the woods you live in."

"Why should we help those that prosecute us because they consider us a lesser species?" spat out Bane.

"Not all of us do," replied Harry "I don't prosecute you, has Dumbledore ever prosecuted you? Hagrid? My friends? Of course not. You're scared, that's why you're not helping."

Bane actually snarled at the insult but didn't advance towards the armed wizard, despite the fact that Harry had long ago lowered his wand and cancelled the spells on the other two centaurs.

"We are not scared! We just refuse to fight for people who do not respect us."

"Then fight with me. Join myself, the Veela, the Acromantulas, the Goblins and the House Elves in our fight against Voldemort." Harry withdrew the contract and a quill and threw both towards Bane who caught them and unrolled the document "Read that, does that show any sign of prejudice, does it show one species as being more powerful than another. Other than my leadership of the Court everyone is equal, each species gets an equal say in what we do. Sign it, help us fight and I promise you after the war is over I will do all I can to improve Centaur/Human relations."

By this time several more Centaurs had gathered around them, many were nodding in agreement at Harry's words, others were looking pensive, a few were even wearing those smug looks that said 'I foresaw a great future for this human'.

Bane finished reading the parchment before turning to Harry.

"We will hold you to your promise Harry Potter." He informed him before quickly signing the parchment and donning the ring that appeared "We will come to your assistance when you call."

Before Harry got the chance to even react the Centaurs had disappeared back into the forest, leaving a surprised Harry standing alone amongst the ancient trees.

That had been a lot easier than expected.

Donning his cloak he made his way back across the grounds and headed for the school.

As he opened the door to his rooms he removed his cloak and hung it on the peg by the door.

"Honey I'm home." He grinned.

Fleur quickly emerged from their bedchamber dressed in a long robe with her arms crossed.

"Are you going to tell me what you have been up to now?" she asked, her tone slightly aggravated at being left out of the loop.

"Getting us allies." He replied showing her the contract.

"The Acromantulas AND the Centaurs." She said surprised "In half an hour!"

"Was it only that long, blimey."

She moved forward and hugged him tightly before giving him a passionate kiss.

When they separated several minutes later Harry looked slightly dazed.

"Wow, if I get that sort of reward every time I get allies I will make sure that everyone in the country on our side."

Fleur laughed lightly before giving him a kiss on the cheek, though she almost jumped out of her skin when she saw Harry's Black Widow crawl down his arm.

"What in Merlin's name is that?" she asked as the spider started pulling itself out of his hand.

"The Mark of the Spider." He replied "She is a magical spider that will allow me to speak their language. She's called...I'm sorry, what was your name?"

"Please call me Octavia, Master."

"Octavia." He said to Fleur, before turning back to his latest friend "Why don't you go hunting and come and find me in the morning."

The spider bowed before jumping off his hand, landing totally unhurt on the carpet and scurrying off to find a place to build a web.

Moving back towards him now that the creepy spider had left, Fleur once again took Harry's hand.

"I have only given you one reward Arry, I have another to give you."

"Oh?" he asked perplexed.

"Go into the bedroom, I will join you in a minute." She said mischievously.

Not overly worried, Harry walked into the bedroom and removed his jacket, shoes and socks, before lying down to relax on the bed.

A few seconds later he though he heard a sound from Fleur as if she had just tasted something fowl, but dismissed the idea and just let his eyelids slide closed, waiting for Fleur to return.

A few minutes later a voice came from the doorway, a voice that was definitely not Fleur's.

"Are you ready for me Harry?"

His eyes flew open as he shot into a sitting position to see a pink haired Tonks, dressed in the same robe that Fleur had been in minute's earlier, leaning seductively against the door frame.

"Tonks!" he said shocked, moving slightly further up the bed. The last time something like this had happened he had only just got away.

"Harry." She purred, slinking over to him.

As she moved towards him Harry realised his mistake, Tonks didn't move that gracefully.

"Fleur?" he asked.

She smiled widely at him.

"It's good to see that you can tell us apart." Said another smiling Tonks as she walked into the room, this one was dressed as she had been when they went to the volcano earlier "What gave it away?"

"Fleur walks more gracefully than you do and where Fleur stepped over my shoes you would have tripped." He replied, still not quite sure what was going on "Err, why is Fleur disguised as you?"

"To give you the reward for rescuing me from those Valkyrie's wandering hands." Smiled Tonks "We both know that you would not even consider letting anyone else sleep with you, even if Fleur took a wizards oath that she fully approved and did not mind."

"Not to mention what it might do to the mating." Added Fleur "So we came up with a compromise, I would take Polyjuice Potion with one of her hairs in it."

"That way you could be with me, without being with me and I got to say thank you," Tonks continued before adding with a smile "Not to mention I could boast about the fact that I did the horizontal jog with you."

Harry groaned, before opening his mouth to speak, only to be cut off by Fleur.

"And there is no way you can talk your way out of this."

"Because we are not going to let you." Added Tonks.

"Is there no..."

"No!" they both replied.

"You are still going to be with me Harry," said Fleur "I will just be wearing a costume."

"I'll leave you two to it." Smiled Tonks turning to leave, before pausing and grinning at Fleur "Err, don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"Oh don't worry," smiled Fleur "We won't."

Tonks gave one short laugh as she left the room and walked out of their chambers.

Harry turned back to Fleur, slightly apprehensively.

"Lets get started shall we?" Purred Fleur/Tonks undoing the tie on her robes, letting it slide off her shoulders to pool at her feet, revealing Tonks body encased in black stockings, suspenders, a black thong, a tight black corset and a pair of stiletto heels.

Harry's chinned dropped at the sight, this was definitely Tonks idea, Fleur would never wear something like that without encouragement.

"You like?" she asked, slightly uncertainly.

"I..." he tried once, before realising that his voice was several octaves too high "I like."

Fleur/Tonks looked relieved; he could tell she was just as uncomfortable with her current attire as he thought she would be, she much preferred an elegant and seductive night gown to anything so obviously sexy.

Slinking the rest of the distance to the bed, Fleur climbed on to the end and began to crawl towards him, swaying her hips as she went.

Crawling up his body she knelt over him, her arms supporting her as her hair, albeit a lot shorter than usual, hung around their faces.

"Fleur, are you su..."

"Yes." She said firmly, before dropping down to lay on top of him, and rubbing her body against his, paying particular attention to his groin.

Harry groaned as her hips rubbed against him.

He felt her hand wrap around him through the fabric of his trousers.

"You like that Harry?" she purred into his ear before sucking lightly on her earlobe, Harry wondered exactly what else Tonks had taught Fleur as this was not her usual method of seduction.

He soon found out as Fleur trailed kisses and tongue flicks down his neck before giving his neck a slight nip, making him groan.

"Enjoying yourself Harry." She grinned as she pulled his shirt open, continuing to kiss, lick or nip each new bit of exposed skin, paying special attention to his nipples, giving each a quick suck before continuing south until his shirt was completely undone.

She pulled it off his shoulders before kneeling over him.

Reaching behind her, Harry watched transfixed as she started to open up the corset inch by inch, revealing Tonks breasts, they was roughly the same size as Fleur's but on Tonks slightly shorter frame they appeared larger.

Harry was sure he should not be so aroused by seeing one of his friends topless but he really could not help himself as his reaction became all the more evident through his trousers.

Seeing his reaction Fleur reached down and ran her hands over his jeans, eliciting a moan of appreciation from him.

"See something you like Harry." She purred as she started to undo his trousers and slide them down his legs, leaving him in just one of the pairs of boxers she had bought him in France.

"I think that's evident." He replied as she removed his last item of clothing.

Grinning up at him she then did something that he had never known Fleur to do before.

She started to kiss his manhood, licking it, wrapping her lips around it.

Harry almost bucked at the contact and only a large amount of self control prevented him from doing so.

Wearing Tonks skin really had made Fleur bolder, he had heard of this before but he had never, ever imagined it being done to him, as with her style of night attire Fleur was much more traditional when it came to intercourse, not doing anything to wild or experimental, with the exception of the time after their fight, but being with Fleur nothing else was ever EVER needed.

Fleur gave one last kiss to Harry's manhood before pulling back, making him moan at the loss.

"You don't want it to be over so soon my love," she smiled "You can return the favour later."

Before he could say anything she rocked back into a kneeling position before standing up on the bed, towering over him.

He was about to ask her what she was doing when she hooked her thumbs into the sides of her thong and slowly, ever so slowly, sliding it down her legs.

If Harry's eye had been wide before, they must have been the size of footballs by now.

It turned out that it wasn't only the hair on Tonks head that was pink.

As Fleur slipped the thong of her legs, leaving her in only the stockings, suspenders and heels she dropped back down onto the bed and crawled back up his body, giving him one last lick as she passed his groin before arriving back at his head and in a phrase that had definitely come from Tonks said.

"Now, let's get squelchy."

* * *

AUTHORS NOTE: I am sorry it is taking so long between chapters but I have been rather busy of late, rest assured that I am continuing to write. 

AUTHORS NOTE 2: Now this is something I have been planning to mention for ages. I get on average about 6 reviews from 4 web sites and 2 yahoo groups per chapter, now I am not complaining about the reviews but there are a few bits of information that I would like to reveal to you.

If you are reading this on Ficwad then you are on e of the average 200 hits each new chapter gets in its first week and one of the 21,000 total hits for the story.

If you are reading this on you may be one of the many people who have marked this story as one of their favourites, marked me as one of your favourite authors or have added this story to your notification lists and I know there are many of you as every time one of you adds this story to a list I get an email notification and I have been getting 4 or 5 a week for the last few months.

And those of you reading on Twisting the Hellmouth , this also applies to you. Those of you reading on HPArchive are exempt as that site is very small and 2 of the 6 reviews normally come from you.

I am not complaining about all the hits and notification lists that this story is added to, far from it in fact, it does the authors ego wonders to see the numbers mount up, but when over 250+ people must be reading each new chapter and I get only 6 reviews you can see why I feel slightly put out.

PLEASE people, this is my first full length story I need encouragement, just a simple "Great Chapter" would do, please people, throw me a bone here, ask me questions, criticize, mistakes, please people, this is not a statement of give me reviews or I won't write but it would be nice to have a few more please.


	76. CH76 Lord Of The House

Chapter 76 – Lord Of The House

_A VOLCANIC END TO THE VALKYRIE'S VOLCANO_

_By Luna Lovegood_

_Yesterday for the first time in many years the volcano in the Mediterranean known as Stromboli erupted. The volcano in question was the home of the world's largest colony of Valkyrie's (see Page 5 for more information about Valkyrie and there questionable habits)._

_While the eruption itself is big news, being as it destroyed the entire colony causing the Valkyrie and their Fire Wolves to flee for their lives, the most interesting part is that hovering over the erupting volcano was the dragon symbol of the masked vigilante who has been fighting Voldemort in protection of Wizarding Britain._

_Given the fact that the Valkyrie have always been considered dark creatures by the Wizarding World, this reporter wonders why the Valkyrie were attacked. Did the hero of the Wizarding World discover that the Valkyrie were planning to strike, did he discover that they had sided with Voldemort, all that is known at this time is that when Sicilian Aurors and Eruption Response Crews arrived to try to stop the disaster they found the bodies of several Death Eaters who appeared to have been killed by the heat._

_The Death Eaters could of course have been attacking the colony but it occurs to this reporter that why would Voldemort attack someone he could use as an ally._

_For more information about the incident and interviews with witnesses go to page...

* * *

_

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:16__th __September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Staff Quarters_

_Time:Morning_

The next morning Harry awoke to the wonderful aroma of Fleur Delacour.

Sighing contently he opened his eyes and carefully stretched, trying not to disturb the beautiful Veela lying on his chest.

He saw that his eight legged friend had rejoined him during the night and was now sitting under his skin, again in the place of the Dark Mark.

As the events of the previous evening came back to him he smiled widely, he could feel himself reacting to the memories, they would definitely have to try some of those things again in Fleur's own body, he would love to see the way she looked in her natural form when he had returned the favour for the first thing she had done to him that evening.

Fleur mumbled contently as her eyes creaked open and looked up into his face.

"Morning Arry." She smiled "I take it you liked what happened last night...and from your reaction, I am guessing you would not mind a repeat performance."

"You know I am never going to be able to look at Tonks the same way again now, I will be far too embarrassed to ever hold a conversation with her without thinking about last night." He replied, blushing deeply "Besides, you are the one I should be making love to."

Fleur smiled widely.

"Arry, you were making love to me remember, and we don't need to ask Tonks for more hairs if we want to try that again."

Harry looked at her confused.

"You don't need an entire hair for that potion Arry, less than a centimetre will do, and we still have twenty centimetres of the first hair plus another five hairs of the same length."

Harry's eyes bulged at the realisation at the number of times he could make love to Fleur in Tonks form. He still felt like doing so was like cheating on Fleur but as neither she of Tonks thought so he would enjoy it while he could.

"And before you start thinking about it being wrong again Arry, remember that both of us ladies wanted this and that it is hardly fair that you have only ever been with one woman whereas I have several lovers before we mated. This is my way of letting you experience all the things you may have done, had we not mated."

Harry opened his mouth to speak but was cut off as Fleur continued.

"I know Arry, you only want to be with me, but I enjoyed it, you enjoyed it, Tonks found the idea wonderfully arousing and even got my permission to become me when she is with Bill, and I must admit...being someone else while in bed...was very...arousing."

She almost purred out the last word, which made Harry almost shudder at the feeling that coursed through the bond.

"Later Arry." Grinned Fleur "For now we had better go and get breakfast."

* * *

A few minutes later as they sat down at the teachers table for breakfast (Harry had been alternating his seating arrangements every other meal between Gryffindor Table and the Professors Table) they were greeted with a beaming smile from a grinning Tonks.

"I take it he enjoyed himself?" she asked.

"Oh yes." Nodded Fleur "He definitely did, he even twitched when he realised how much hair you had given us."

Both of them laughed at Harry's bright red face.

"How was your night?" asked Fleur as she helped herself to breakfast "Did Bill enjoy your visit?"

"Definitely," grinned Tonks "He said he never knew that Fleur Delacour could look so good blindfolded."

Both of the others stopped, cutlery half way to their mouths.

"Do I want to know what you were doing with my body?" asked Fleur cautiously.

"Just exercising a fetish of mine." Grinned Tonks, enjoying the slightly worried looks she was receiving "Though normally I am not French when we play that game."

Deciding it was safer not to enquire further the pair continued their breakfast.

When Colette arrived she, of course, had to ask about the massive grin on Tonks face, leading to the subject of the previous nights activities being explained again, much to Harry's embarrassment, which only increased when Colette asked if she could contribute her body to both pairs, almost causing Harry to choke on his breakfast.

About halfway through breakfast Harry was given a break when the post owls arrived.

He, as was usual now, was receiving a few bits of merchandise, catalogues or advertising requests in every delivery as well as one or two more from those that admired or hated him, but in this morning's post there was something different.

An official looking green envelope addressed to.

_Lord Potter-Gryffindor-Black_

Along with several prints of the words:

_Undelivered, resend on the..._

Followed by dates, the first date was the day after he received his emancipation.

His curiosity peaked, Harry slowly opened the envelope.

Inside was one piece of card and an official looking letter, the card had a green border and gold print.

Turning to the letter, Harry opened it and began to read.

_Lord Potter-Gryffindor-Black_

_Our apologies that this invite took so long to reach you, but our owls have been experiencing trouble finding you._

_This letter has been sent out eleven times since its original posting and this is the first time that the owls were able to find you._

_Our apologies for the inconvenience._

_Agnis Alderman _

_Head Of The Office Of The Owl Post_

Putting it to the side, Harry turned to the green piece of card which read:

_Lord Potter-Gryffindor-Black_

_You are cordially invited to the Ministry Equinox Ball to be held on the 23__rd__ of September._

_This entrance pass grants you and three guest's admittance to the event, we hope to see you there._

_Cornelius Oswald Fudge _

_Minister of Magic_

"What have you got there Harry?" asked Tonks, looking curiously at the Ministry green envelope.

"An invitation to the Ministry's Equinox Ball for myself and three guests." He replied "I'm surprised that Fudge actually sent me an invitation to whatever this is

"He probably didn't even read who the invitation was to. He has to sign at least a hundred of those, probably more." explained Tonks, a smile spreading on her face "I would love to see his face when he sees you there."

"You think I should go then?"

"I would Arry," smiled Fleur, holding up her own invitation for herself and one guest "Because I am going."

"Mother will probably be there Harry, as will Dumbledore and probably a few others on our side," added Tonks "So you won't have to put up with the politicians all by yourself."

"Ok, ok, I will go," he nodded, before something occurred to him "Hang on, why do I get three guests and you only get one?" He said pointing at Fleur's invite.

"You have three lordly titles Harry," explained Colette, holding up her own invitation "Thane, Baron and Viscount. Fleur is the daughter of aristocracy and we are both daughter of a members of the French Council of Power. As we are both visiting the country we get invites with single guests. It's an automated process as technically it's supposed be one guest per attendee rather than one per title, the only reason Fleur hasn't got two is because most aristocracy hold government positions so they make sure only to count it once."

"So the three of us are going and we have six guests between us." Concluded Fleur "Who are we going to invite?"

"Well obviously the single guest should be for your partner," explained Tonks "But as you two both got one you have to choose someone else."

"Do you and Bill want to go?" asked Harry.

Tonks cringed.

"Thanks, but no thanks. The dancing, the glamour, the food and the music I could stand, but spending an evening in a room full of politicians is too much even for me. I would end up cursing them before the evening was out."

"So you are going to leave us to take them on by ourselves," Harry chuckled "Some friend you are."

Tonks stuck her tongue out at him.

"Was that an invitation to bite it off?" He grinned, trying not to think at what Tonks/Fleur's tongue had been up to the night before "Who are you going to go with Colette?"

"I could ask Adam," she wondered aloud "He might accept and hanging on his arm all evening could be fun, but what about you're four?"

The pair thought for a moment before arriving at the same decision.

"Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Buffy."

"Good choices." Smiled Tonks before nodding in the direction of Buffy who had just come in through the doors, followed a few seconds later from the opposite direction by Adam.

Getting to their feet the three made their way down Gryffindor table so that they could intercept the pair by the time they reached the spot where Hermione, Ron and the others were sitting.

"Morning all." Beamed Colette as they all came to a stop beside the Gryffindor's.

"Ginny," asked Ron nervously "Is it just me or was that the same tone and grin that the twin's use when they are about to play a prank?"

"It was brother of mine, it was." returned Ginny, imitating the twin's style of speech "Me thinks they are about to pull one."

Hermione rolled her eyes at the pair, though her cautious look showed that she was just as unnerved by Colette's words.

"Buffy, Hermione, Ron and Ginny," began Harry "Would the four of you care to attend the Ministry Equinox Ball as guests of myself and Fleur next Sunday?"

Four chins dropped at the announcement.

"Are you serious Harry?" Hermione asked "You're inviting us to one of the most high society events of the Wizarding World?"

"Yes."

Adam's face changed to display his usual half smile.

"Now I understand the prank. Two 'Pureblood traitors', two half bloods, a Muggle Born and a former Muggle attending a ball which is a celebration of everything Pureblood."

"Some of them are going to have kittens." Colette grinned, before turning to Adam, looking hopeful "Would you care to be my guest at the Ball?"

He looked mildly surprised for a moment before bowing slightly and taking the back of her hand and kissing it.

"I would be honoured."

She gave him a wide smile before, turning back to the shocked trio, still trying to comprehend the idea of going to the ball.

Ginny was the first to move as she wobbled slightly before fainting into Ron, knocking him out of his shocked state.

"One of her childhood dreams was to go to the Equinox Ball." explained he as he cast an Enervate on her "You can take her passing out as a definite yes, the same goes for me, Mione?"

The brunette just nodded mutely, not noticing the abbreviation of her name as she was still too shocked to say anything.

"Great, Buffy?"

"I'm not going to turn down the chance to go to a dance." She smiled.

"Brilliant," Harry smiled, before turning to Neville and Luna (who was sitting in his lap) "I'm sorry I can't take any more guests."

Neville smiled and pulled an invitation from his pocket.

"My father was a Baron and since my birthday, because of a clause that comes with it I can now use the title, so Luna and I will be going to the ball as well."

Harry's eyes widened in surprise before a smile spread across his face.

"Do you have a Wizengamot seat?"

"Of course, I am going to the meeting later today to claim it."

"That makes two of us." Grinned Harry "Do you know what's on the agenda today?"

"Yes," nodded Neville, Harry could tell from the tone of his voice that it was going to be something ridiculous, silly or stupid "Fudge plans to introduce measures to control Werewolves and how to prevent the 'dangerous beasts' from attacking people. It's apparently going to go through easily."

"Well," grinned Harry "It looks like Fudge is in for a shock."

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:16__th __September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – England_

_Location:London – Ministry Of Magic_

_Time:Late Morning_

Later that day, Harry, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Neville and a couple of older students walked into the Wizengamot chamber, it hadn't surprised Harry when Dumbledore sent him a short message telling him that all those with Wizengamot business were assembling in his office to travel by Floo to the Ministry. Harry knew that Fleur, Colette, Buffy, those who had with him at the DOM and several Order members were going to be watching from the public gallery wanting to see the how the Wizengamot were going to react to him joining their ranks, the public gallery which was positioned on an invisible upper level that could only seen or heard when you were in it.

As they entered the chambers Dumbledore directed Neville and Harry towards the benches on one side of the room, they had to formerly request their seat after the session had been called, both already knew this having looked into Wizengamot procedure before coming.

Harry and Neville watched as everyone else seated themselves, Dumbledore moving to the raised seat that the Chief Warlock resided in, while McGonagall and the other students moved into the member's seats. Harry noticed a couple of people he recognised including Amelia Bones and Amos Diggory taking seats nearby before finally Fudge strode into the room, totally convinced of his own superiority.

The doors slammed shut and a short flash as wards sealed the room from all outside interference.

"I call this, the nine hundredth and fifty sixth meeting of the Wizengamot to order." called Dumbledore "Thank you. As you know we are now sealed from the outside world and the doors will not be opened for anything less than a national emergency. Before we turn to the agenda, are there any petitions from the public?"

Harry watched as Neville stood.

"If it pleases the Wizengamot." He stated.

"Come forward and be recognised." Said Dumbledore formally.

Walking down from the gallery Neville continued, slightly nervous at being in front of so many people, but nowhere near as nervous as he would have been the year before, Luna's straightforwardness was obviously a good influence on him.

"I am Baron Neville Longbottom, only son of Baron Frank Longbottom. As per the terms of my father's title, I petition the Wizengamot to claim the Longbottom seat and vote."

"Does anyone have any objections to Baron Longbottom claiming his seat?" asked Dumbledore, no one spoke "Very well, petition granted, you may take your seat Baron."

Neville bowed as the formal Wizengamot robes appeared about him, before heading up to sit near Professor McGonagall who had saved seats beside her for the pair.

"Are there any more petitions from the public?" asked Dumbledore.

Standing, Harry repeated Neville's words.

"If it pleases the Wizengamot."

There were many whispers when people recognised him, some exited, others nervous and a few more angry.

"Come forward and be recognised."

Walking down he spoke.

"I am Thane Harry Potter and Baron Harry Black, only son of Thane James Potter and title heir of Sirius Black. I petition the Wizengamot to claim the Potter and Black seats and votes."

There were many mutterings about this, Harry could see two small knots of people glaring at him intently but having no legal objections they remained silent.

"Does anyone have any objections to Thane Potter claiming his seats?" asked Dumbledore, no one spoke "Very well, petition granted, you may take your seat Thane."

"If it pleases the Wizengamot, I have two more seats to claim.

"Continue Thane Potter." Said Dumbledore after a moment's pause, obviously not having expected this turn of events."

"I also posses the title of Viscount Gryffindor, by default I claim the seat of Godric Gryffindor."

Half the Wizengamot were on their feet in seconds.

"Outrageous!"

"Unthinkable!"

"That seat hasn't been taken in four hundred years."

"That line is extinct."

"What right do you have to the seat?" demanded Fudge, climbing down onto the same level as him.

"Prove you claim Viscount." Stated Dumbledore once the hall had quietened.

"I receive the title of Gryffindor through the ownership of land, my ancestors married a descendant of Gryffindor, thusly I although am not in the direct line, I am in the extended family. The direct line is extinct, the ownership of Godrics Hollow was passed to the nearest living relative, my ancestor, thusly I am the closest living relative to Godric Gryffindor, by that right I claim the seat, if I am unable to claim the seat it must mean that the House no longer exists and the Wizengamot seat for that house must be permanently disbanded."

There was much more argument, Fudge just stared at him outraged, but did not attempt to say more.

"You can not claim the seat." Shouted a man that bore a resemblance to Pansy Parkinson.

"He has the ancestry, the title and the right." Countered McGonagall sternly.

"Do you really want to be responsible for disbanding the seat of one of the Hogwarts founders?" asked Neville, proving that he was not going to be a quiet member of the Wizengamot.

"We shall put it to the vote." Said Dumbledore firmly, his voice echoing around the chamber, immediately silencing everyone.

Drawing their wands the Wizengamot pointed them at sheets of parchment that appeared in front of them.

"Vote now."

Lights flew out of all the wands and collided with their parchment; at the same point another sheet of parchment appeared in front of Dumbledore, picking it out of the air Dumbledore read from the parchment.

"Ten abstain, thirty eight vote Nay, forty one vote Ai."

There were shouts from many members but the decision was final.

"Viscount," announced Dumbledore smiling "You have the Gryffindor seat, what was your final petition?"

"Lastly by victory through combat I wish to claim the seat of Salazar Slytherin."

The outburst after this announcement was even louder than the previous one.

"How dare you think you have the right to that seat!" bellowed Parkinson.

"I dare because I have." Harry replied calmly, though his voice was clearly audible above the din.

"You strut in here and demand the rights to two of the founder's seats!" shouted Fudge "Is one not good enough for you. How arrogant are you Potter?"

All sound in the hall ceased at the Minister's words and the Minister himself paled as he realised that he had just insulted Harry Potter in front of many witnesses.

"Minister you will apologise immediately for that insult." Said Dumbledore firmly.

Fudge gritted his teeth as he reluctantly spoke.

"I...apologise...Viscount."

There were several seconds of silence before Harry returned in a perfectly level and peaceful voice.

"Apology accepted, but as the Minister doubts the validity of my claim I will provide evidence."

Moving to the centre of the hall he began to speak.

"Am I correct in thinking that the Ministry now accepts that Voldemort," there were shudders and gasps from a lot of the halls occupants "Has returned?"

No one spoke for several seconds before Amelia Bones stood.

"That is correct Viscount. After the events involving the Department of Mysteries a few months ago, the Ministry accepted his return and accepted your account of what happened to cause his return."

"Thank you Director Bones." He smiled bowing his head slightly, a gesture she returned before seating herself "To that effect I then submit that the pathetic creature now known as Voldemort is in fact the former Half-Blood Hogwarts student that went by the name of Tom Marvolo Riddle."

He then raised his wand and did the word trick that diary Riddle showed him in the chamber. There were many mutterings but everyone's eyes were glued on him, he had seen Parkinson and several others clenching their fists when he had called Voldemort a Half-Blood, but of course they did not dare disagree with him.

"That was shown to me by Riddle during my second year at Hogwarts, but I shall come back to that in a moment, first can I ask the Chief Warlock to confirm that the last member of the Slytherin line was Tom Marvolo Riddle."

Dumbledore drew his wand and pointed it in air.

"I swear on my magic that to the best of my knowledge Tom Marvolo Riddle was the last member of the Slytherin line. On my magic I so swear."

There was a flash as the magic confirmed the oath, many people gasping as the most powerful wizard in the world did such a dangerous thing. Dumbledore then levitated a stack of papers once around the room to prove that he still had his magic.

"Thank you Chief Warlock." Bowed Harry before continuing "Now the rules of taking a seat by combat state that I must have defeated or reached a stalemate with said person three separate times and that I cannot have initiated more than one of the battles. The first time was as I am sure you are all aware when I was one and his attack rebounded upon himself, thus defeating him to the point where he was unable to take a body as his own for another thirteen years. The second time was during my first year when I and two of my friends went after the Philosophers Stone after learning that it was in danger, having bypassed all the test I..."

"How did three first year students get around tests set up by some of the best spell casters in the country?" demanded Fudge, he REALLY didn't want Harry to have that many seats with which to vote against him.

"The first test was the three headed dog known as Fluffy who was asleep thanks to the schools DADA teacher Quirrell, then there was Devilsnare, which Hermione, being the most intelligent student in our year at Hogwarts knew how to get around, by not moving and direct sunlight. The second test was to catch a key to a door, which I caught using the broom provided, remember, I am the youngest seeker in a century. Then came a giant chess board, you had to win to continue, my other friend Ron is a Chess Master and although he was injured in the game we managed to get past them and win, Hermione and I continued on past a troll who had already been defeated by Quirrell, then there was a logic test which Hermione again figured out but would only let one of us through, so I went on and Hermione went back to take care of Ron. I then reached the room containing the stone, there I came face to face with Quirrell whose body Tom Riddle was residing in, he attacked me but my touch burned him, clamping my hands over his face I defeated Quirrell and therefore Voldemort again."

He paused for a second to let the information sink in.

"In my second year I entered the Chamber of Secrets with Ron to save his sister Ginny."

"How did you find the Chamber and why was she down there in the first place?" called Parkinson, Malfoy senior had obviously told him about the diary and was hopping he could get Ginny in trouble for it.

"I found the chamber through a process of deduction, I knew that the last time it had opened a female student had died in a bathroom. The ghost that most people refer to as Moaning Myrtle was a Hogwarts student and died in the bathroom she resides in after seeing something near the sinks, where the Chamber opened to anyone who can speak Parseltongue like I and Tom can and Salazar could. As for why Ginny was there, the convicted Death Eater Lucius Malfoy slipped a diary into one of her books when she was shopping before her first year. Inside said diary was the spirit of the young Riddle. The spirit possessed her and commanded her to paint the messages on the walls as well as order the Basilisk to attack the Muggle Born students, in then told her to go into the chamber and began to suck the life out of her and into the now corporeal form of Riddle that had emerged from it. I...actually, I have a better idea."

Drawing his wand, he touched it to his head and pulled out the memory in question.

"With the Chief Warlock's permission?" he asked, to which Dumbledore nodded, understanding what Harry was about to do.

Muttering another spell the silver memory hanging from his wand began to expand like a balloon, it kept getting bigger and bigger until it separated from Harry's wand and floated in the air and flattered into a large silver sheet.

"What are you doing Potter." Demanded Fudge, he, like most of the hall, were not aware of the spells he was performing.

"Watch and learn Minister." He replied before tapping the sheet and the memories started to play out, starting from Ron and himself going to Lockhart, all seen from his perspective.

The Wizengamot watched entranced as they went to the bathroom, opened the chamber and entered.

Harry tuned out for a while, focusing on the reactions of the audience, many were shocked at what they were seeing, some were angry at him for succeeding in proving that their lord had not always been as strong as the liked to think.

He rejoined the action when Fawkes call got his attention, he watched as he retrieved the sword and began the running fight with the basilisk, the audience were gasping at every single attempted strike of its great fangs.

They watched shocked as he plunged the sword into the basilisk and received the fatal fang strike in the process and finally as he destroyed the diary and Ginny's awakening.

The sheet shrunk back into a string before dropping back into Harry's head.

"That was my second defeat of Tom." Said Harry, shocking the Wizengamot out of its stunned silence "Now for the cause of a lot of grief for myself and the Chief Warlock by the Ministry and the press last year, the events of the Triwizard Tournament."

He watched as several of the officials present had the decency to look embarrassed while Fudge just ignored the comment and kept glaring at Harry.

Drawing another memory from his head, he again cast it into the air and produced the sheet.

Activating it he turned away just as Cedric and he agreed to take the cup together.

He waited the few seconds, trying to bring other memories to the front of his mind but he could not stop himself from hearing the words.

"Kill the spare."

"Avada kedavra!"

"Cedric!" his voice cried out as many gasps could he heard from the crowd including an anguished cry of sorrow from Amos Diggory, he hadn't considered what seeing Cedric's death might be like for his father.

He let them watch as Voldemort returned, as the Death Eaters arrived and were each named by their master, as the twin cores interacted, his defeating Voldemort's, as his parents and Cedric appeared from Voldemort's wand and his returning of Cedric's body to Hogwarts.

As the image returned to his mind, not a word was spoken, everyone remained silent.

Most of the ladies had been crying as well as several of the men.

Many more were dead white at either seeing Cedric killed before their eyes, for seeing Wormtail cutting his own arm off or for actually seeing Voldemort right in front of them.

More still were looking shocked that such a thing could happen, that a fourteen year old boy could out match the most feared wizard on the planet in a battle of strength.

And lastly the remaining few who consisted almost entirely of Pure-Bloods were trying to blend in.

The silence stretched on for almost thirty seconds before a teary eyed Amos Diggory stood and said.

"Thank you for bringing my son back to me Viscount."

Harry said nothing for several moments, a single tear running down his cheek, before nodding his thanks to the grieving father.

Clearing his throat and wiping the tear away he spoke again.

"And there I defeated Tom a third time, thus I apply to take the Slytherin seat, as with the Gryffindor seat it must either be claimed or rescinded."

Another few seconds past before Dumbledore said that they would put it to the vote.

The voting past in relative silence.

"Five abstain, fifteen vote Nay, seventy vote Ai. Viscount, you have the Slytherin seat."

Bowing Harry, now wearing his Wizengamot robes moved up amongst the other members before seating himself beside Neville.

"Are there any more petitions from the public?"

No one spoke.

"Very well." continued Dumbledore "First order of business. Minister, you wish to put forward your Werewolf Control Bill to be accepted as Wizarding law."

"Yes Chief Warlock." Smiled Fudge, pleased to be the centre of attention again.

"There are four main groups in the Wizengamot," whispered McGonagall to him and Neville while Fudge was reading out the necessary official garbage; the bill number, what departments have been working on it etcetera "There are the Pure-Blood traditionalist like Parkinson who think they are better than everyone else, several of whom support You-Know-Who, Fudges lot who have control over Fudge or are controlled by Fudge and therefore will vote the same way he does, the New Order like us, Amelia and Amos who want what is best for Britain and the Neutrals who sway the vote, of late Fudges lot and the Purebloods have been on the same side, anything we want to turn down needs to have the Neutrals on our side."

"The bill states the following:" continued Fudge, reading from his papers "We all know that Werewolves are dangerous vile creatures that pose a serious threat to public safety, for the good of Wizarding Britain I propose that all Werewolves should be made to wear tracking charms, should be banned from several major public areas such as Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade, should be locked up during the period of the full moon and any resistance to these laws should be punishable by imprisonment in Azkaban."

All through the speech the majority of the Wizengamot had been nodding and muttering their agreement with only a select few shaking their heads and sighing at Fudges stupidity.

"Anyone who wishes to stand and speak for or against these proposals can now do so." Announced Dumbledore.

Parkinson immediately stood.

"I firmly agree with our esteemed Ministers proposal, Werewolves are extremely dangerous and should never be allowed to endanger the public." There were sounds of agreement from the Pureblood and Fudge supporters.

McGonagall went to stand but Harry beat her to the punch.

"Am I correct in thinking that the Minister believes that Werewolves should be locked up because they endanger the public?"

"That is correct," nodded Fudge cautiously, not quite sure were Harry was heading with this "They pose a real and growing threat to the public."

"And what about the other twenty eight days of the month?" Harry asked.

Fudge looked on confused before spluttering "Pardon?"

"What about the other twenty eight days of the month?" Harry repeated.

"I am afraid I do not understand the question." Replied Fudge, regaining some composure.

"What about the twenty eight days of the month when the Werewolves are perfectly ordinary humans. I will not disagree that during the full moon and the nights before and after they are dangerous creatures to be around, but for the rest of the month they are as normal as you or I Minster, as was proved when the Werewolf Remus Lupin came to teach at Hogwarts for a year. If you ask every student in Hogwarts who attended his lessons, I doubt that any less than seventy five percent of them would agree that, not including the disguised Death Eater we were taught by, he was by far the best DADA teacher any of us ever had, which is also proved by that fact that he taught me, as a third year to cast the extremely advanced Patronus Charm."

Fudge opened his mouth to speak but Harry kept going.

"I will also point out that only one student at Hogwarts, only ONE," he emphasised "Figured out that he was a Werewolf, and then only because another Professor left clues to his condition. Before he was found out to be a Werewolf I would again guess that no less than seventy five percent of his students and their parents had no problem with him, can you confirm that Chief Warlock?"

"I can," nodded Dumbledore "The paintings, ghost and House Elves all told me that Remus Lupin was thought very highly of until they learned what he was."

"You said seventy five percent of students would agree that he was a good teacher." interrupted Fudge "The last twenty five must have seen that he was a bad teacher than."

"I disagree Minister," continued Dumbledore "The exam results from that year were the highest in the last fifteen for Defence Against The Dark Arts, they were only matched by those of last year."

"When I appointed Dolores Umbridge to teach you mean." Smiled Fudge happily.

"No Minster, the high results that year were all and only from those students who when asked replied that they had either studied independently of your Under Secretaries classes or were a part of the club set up by Viscount Gryffindor. The results from the rest of the year were even lower than those from the year that Gilderoy Lockhart was teaching, they were in fact the lowest results since I came to Hogwarts as a student."

Fudge visibly flinched at Dumbledore's words; several members of the Wizengamot had to hide their laughter behind their hands as Harry and Dumbledore deflated the Ministers over inflated ego.

"Getting back to my point," continued Harry, after a nod of thanks to Dumbledore "Remus Lupin was easily proved to be a very competent teacher and very responsible for the safety of those around him as he took Wolfsbane Potion made by the schools Potions Master Severus Snape and indeed left the school in the unlikely event that he got loose or that the potion was not effective, but despite this and the fact that other Werewolves are equally as cautious they still find it incredibly hard to live to any reasonable standard and hold down a job."

Harry paused for a moment before continuing, climbing out of his seat and heading down to the floor as he spoke.

"I will also ask a question that is likely to cause offence but given all the available evidence I feel it needs to be asked."

"What question?" demanded Fudge.

"Minister...Are you a closet Death Eater?"

There were many gasps and exclamations at his question.

"Am...I...a...what!" spluttered Fudge.

"A closet Death Eater?"

"How dare you!" he shouted.

"Well, I would not normally ask but all the evidence leads to that conclusion."

"What evidence?" snapped Fudge.

"Well the fact that you seem to be doing everything in your power to alienate the Werewolves. It is well known that Voldemort," most of the hall shuddered "Is trying to recruit them, so far from trying to convince them that that would be a bad idea you're practically handing them to him on a silver platter. One day he will get them into the Ministry and the next morning when people start arriving for work the night workers will all be dead, dying or infected."

Following his lead Neville stood and also headed down towards the floor.

"This bill plays right into Vold...Voldemort's hands, your basically saying that they are not allowed to go anywhere near people, they are to watched twenty four seven and if they try to resist they get locked up immediately."

"Exactly." Agreed Harry, conjuring a sheet of paper and a quill which began to write down his words "How's this for a counter proposal. Employers of Werewolves must give said beings the day of the full moons and the day either side off and are not allowed to use that as a reason for dismissal, as the employees will not be working those three days they need not be paid for them. During the full moon, the Ministry will provide to any Werewolves who want it, comfortable and secure quarters, in which they can spend the full moon without risk to themselves or others. The Ministry will also supply them with Wolfsbane potions during said period and will make sure that any Werewolf that wants it, whether accepting the quarters or not, has sufficient for the three days at least twenty four hours before their first transformation that month."

"Werewolves are allowed access to public areas at all times except within the three day window, just to be on the safe side." added Neville as he and Harry started walking around the edge of the floor, ignoring the fuming Minister as they redrafted his proposal that had no doubt taken weeks if not months right in front of the entire Wizengamot "And Werewolves will only be arrested for being Werewolves if they deliberately endanger others during the three day window or consciously bite someone outside of that window who then becomes a Werewolf."

"Excellent." Grinned Harry "Chief Warlock, I think the bill is now ready to be put to the vote."

"How dare you!" bellowed Fudge "Who do you think you are, you cannot just barge in here and completely rewrite a Ministerial bill in under five minutes!"

Harry slowly turned to him and then quite calmly said:

"I think I am Thane Potter, Baron Black, Sir Evans, Viscount Gryffindor, the holder of four Wizengamot seats and the person who is trying to stop Voldemort from coming to power, and your bill is exactly the sort of thing that he wants this house to pass as it gets him more followers."

"Agreed." Growled a voice which Harry recognised as Moody's, he had forgotten that he had seen him in Dumbledore's pensive memories "Your playing right into his hands Fudge."

The hall seemed to pause for a moment as the elderly ex-Auror spoke, his opinion had obviously swayed several people, making them realise that they were not just a pair of boys trying to act like men.

"Thank you Lord Moody." Harry smiled, receiving a grin in reply; he could tell Moody was really enjoying the Fudge bashing.

"For fairness, why don't we put it to the vote." Suggested Dumbledore "Vote Ai to accept Viscount Potter's rewritten bill, Nay for Minister Fudges original version or abstain, bare in mind this is not voting to accept the bill, it is merely choosing which bill we will consider making law."

The votes were cast and Dumbledore read off the list.

"Eighteen abstain, thirty vote Nay, forty three vote Ai. Viscount Gryffindor, your bill will now be considered.

* * *

Harry and Neville spent the next hour countering arguments from the Purebloods about Werewolves needing controlling, from Fudges lot that it would be too expensive to contain them and make the Wolfsbane and about how difficult it was to make and any number of other arguments ranking from the serious to the downright silly. They managed to get around most arguments with the occasional assistance of McGonagall, Dumbledore and Moody allowing them to finally reach the voting.

As Dumbledore read off the results Harry and Neville stood nervously as the side of the floor but refused to let it show.

Five abstained, ten voted Nay, seventy six voted Ai.

Harry tried not to react to the result but to anyone who knew him they would have noticed the immediate relaxing of his posture.

There were loud cheers from many members and shouts of 'RE-VOTE' from others but the decision was final.

"The bill is passed." announced Dumbledore "The re-designated Werewolf Protection Bill is now law in her Majesties Wizarding Kingdom of The United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. Next Order of business?"

The next three hours were taken up with a lot of tedious legal issues, a couple of minor government postings that didn't affect the war against Voldemort in the slightest and the approving of several government contracts.

By the time the last contract was approved, eighty percent of the Wizengamot was not even paying attention so by the time the lunch break came around everyone but a few civil servants were dying to get up.

"We will break for half an hour to eat, the nine hundredth and fifty sixth meeting of the Wizengamot is suspended for lunch." Called out Dumbledore, the noise volume in the room instantly tripled, most people saying something along the lines of 'Oh, thank Merlin for that' and other such exclamations of relief.

Neville and Harry both stood to stretch their legs, Neville groaned as both his knees clicked.

"Ouch, I knew there was a reason I didn't like politics," said Neville "Too much sitting around."

"If you intend to come to every meeting you will have to get used to it." McGonagall smiled as she stood up beside them "That is the reason I only come to the important ones."

"Where do we go for lunch Professor?" Harry asked, cricking his neck.

"We don't," she replied, snapping her fingers, a menu appearing between them as she did so "We are sealed in until the end of business, so we eat here."

Looking around Harry observed that after the initial get up and stretch, most of the people in the room had re-seated themselves and were studying menu's.

Sitting back down, he clicked his fingers and examined the list in front of him, deciding on a selection of sandwiches, he touched their name on the menu and the meal appeared hovering in front of him for him to take.

Plucking the plate out of the air, he entered into quiet conversation with Neville and Professor McGonagall whilst they ate.

As people began to finish their meals they started to move around the room, he saw several sending him looks of one kind or another.

A couple of minutes before the meeting resumed their conversation was interrupted by a familiar voice behind him.

"Viscount Gryffindor."

Turning he came face to face with one of the few people he liked at the Ministry.

"Director Bones." He returned "What can I do for you?"

"May I speak to you in private Viscount?" she asked.

Harry noted that she didn't seem nervous or anxious, not that he expected her to be, but more like she was about to mention something someone in her position shouldn't.

"Of course Director Bones, but only if you call me Harry."

She looked mildly surprised for a moment before smiling and leading him a little way further down the row of seats before casting a privacy bubble around them.

"Harry," she began "Firstly, call me Amelia. Secondly, I wish to say that after what you showed us earlier, I don't think I will ever trust another word that the Prophet says about you ever again."

"Thank you." He nodded "If you see articles about me, only believe them if they come from the Quibbler, I am on good terms with them."

"The main reason I wished to speak with you was this. I don't know if you were aware of this but after the attack on your friend Miss Granger's house, she did an interview with the newspaper in question."

"I read the article." He nodded.

"Well, that article caused me no end of trouble with the Minister."

"Trying to blame it on you was he?"

"Yes," she nodded "Luckily my reputation protected me, but my department suffered a great humiliation because of it."

"I'm sure that Hermione didn't mean to cause you grief Dir...Amelia."

"I didn't think she did, but I was actually wondering if you and your friends could write a few more."

Harry stood stunned for several seconds before spluttering:

"Come again?"

"While officially, I am against what Miss Granger did, but the actions of her masked friend and her article allowed me to do more to improve my department than I have since Fudge came to power."

"So Fudge actually allowed you to change things?"

"He is unbelievably stingy when it comes to using Ministry funds. After that article came out my department's budget received a monthly boost of fifteen percent. I've hired Alastor Moody and several other retired veterans to bring up the average skill of my Aurors and train more of my L.E.O's to become Aurors, in preparation for the coming conflict."

"I never understood the difference between the two." Harry added.

"L.E.O's deal with minor break-ins, Muggle incidents, scuffles, patrol work, most of the administrative desk work, etcetera. While Aurors receive higher training, have better skills, are trained duellers and are mainly used for large disturbances, protection duties, high level crimes like murder, rape, large robberies and for bringing in terrorists like Death Eaters. They are the Wizarding equivalent of the British Muggle CID, Special Branch and Armed Response Units while the L.E.O's are the Uniformed Branch."

"Got it." nodded Harry "I didn't know you knew so much about the Muggle World."

"Not all Pureblood families are like the Malfoy's Harry," she smiled "My family have always made sure to know enough about the Muggle World to allow us to be lost in a crowd, but my intimate knowledge of the British Police Force stems mainly from my job as I have regular contact with the Muggle Commissioner of the Police."

"I see," nodded Harry "If I plan to do anything momentous I will make sure the Quibbler knows it."

"Thank you Harry, that's all I ask." She smiled before thinking of something else "While I think of it, were you planning on restarting Dumbledore's Army this year?"

Harry's mouth spread into an amused smile.

"Did Susan tell you?"

"She didn't, I knew she wanted to but the protection charm that Miss Granger put on the contract made her think twice before telling me."

"Then how did you know it was MY organisation rather than Dumbledore's?"

"Dumbledore would not have named the group Dumbledore's Army," she smiled "In addition I don't think you would have been the teacher if it was his organisation. On the other hand I can imagine a student naming the group after the very thing that the Minister feared."

"Good point," Harry nodded "Well I was considering it, yes, though it will be the Defence Association not Dumbledore's Army and I hope to make it an official club this year, why?"

"The same reason as before, to increase my budget so as to increase the competency of my department and therefore better defend this country. If the Minister fears the DA he may increase the Auror force for his own protection and reputation, and when the members start to leave Hogwarts they may decide to become Aurors."

"I see." Nodded Harry "Well, I will see what I can do, but don't tell Susan yet, there is an experiment I want to try and foreknowledge that the DA is restarting will render it pointless.

"As you wish." She nodded, before donning a look that was very serious and businesslike "Just one more thing Harry."

"Yes?" he asked cautiously.

"Do you know anything about the masked stranger who saved your friend?"

Harry had not expected this and was therefore unsure as to how he could answer.

The contract allowed him to tell her but he had been warned against trying to recruit her.

"Why would you think I would know anything about him?" he asked, carefully trying to avoid answering for as long as possible.

"Well he has appeared twice and both times it was to save your friends, I drew my own conclusions from there."

_Bugger_ was the main line of thought running through Harry's brain at that moment; he should have seen the obvious connection. How could he wriggle out of this one?...Got it.

"Haven't those two events been the only two Voldemort related attacks recently?"

"There were the attacks on the Longbottom's, the Weasley's and the Lovegood's." she pointed out.

"But weren't they at the same time as the Granger attack and there was more protection at those locations, or so I've been told. And whoever the man is, he surely can't be in two places at once?"

"True." She nodded "But you must admit it is a coincidence."

"Oh, it's definitely that," he nodded "But other than killing a few of Tom's lap dogs, has he actually done anything illegal?

"Other than killing the Death Eaters, technically no." she nodded "But if I knew he was not a danger to the general public I could at the very least step down the hunt for him...a little."

The unspoken question in her statement was obvious.

"I am sure he doesn't mean any harm to anyone other than Voldemort's supporters." Harry returned, his answer, like hers buried in the words but so obvious that anyone who had been listening to the conversation could understand it.

They both knew that Harry knew more about the stranger than he was telling but they both also knew now that she would not say anything.

After several seconds of looking at each other, Madam Bones nodded.

"Very well. Farewell Harry."

Waving her wand she cancelled the privacy charms and the pair walked back to their respective seats.

* * *

They had to sit through another several hours worth of tedious administrative gibberish before finally the meeting neared its close.

"That is all the business that I have listed." Called Dumbledore "Is there anything else anyone wants to bring up?"

"If it pleases the Wizengamot." Came a voice from the seats.

Looking around Harry saw that it was Amos Diggory that had spoken.

"Yes Directory Diggory, what is it that you want to bring to the attention of the Wizengamot?"

"Given what we saw at the beginning of this meeting I would like to propose that the Order of Merlin be awarded to those students present at the Ministry during You-Know-Who's attack."

Harry and Neville both groaned as Cedric's father spoke, there were sounds of agreement as well as cries of outrage at his words.

"I concur." Seconded McGonagall, standing up.

"As do I." nodded Arthur Weasley standing up from among the Ministry officials, shortly followed by Moody.

"There are sufficient votes for the proposal to be discussed." Agreed Dumbledore "In accordance with the rules of awarding I propose given their actions at the Department of Mysteries that Baron Neville Longbottom and Miss Luna Lovegood each receive the Order of Merlin Third Class. From their actions at the Department of Mysteries and their efforts in saving the Philosophers Stone from Voldemort and stopping the Basilisk that Miss Hermione Granger, Mr Ronald Weasley and Miss Ginevra Weasley each receive The Order Of Merlin Second Class and from his actions at the Department of Mysteries, at protecting the Stone, from stopping the Basilisk and fighting and defeating Voldemort many times since his birth that The Order Of Merlin First Class should be awarded to Thane Harry Potter."

There were many cheers at his words, though Harry and Neville continued to groan at the idea.

Harry was about to refuse but realised that if he, receiving the most high ranking of the awards, was to turn his down, the others would not get theirs either.

As an idea came to his mind, he sighed once, stood up as the entire hall fell silent.

"If the vote is passed then I will only accept the award if The Order Of Merlin Third Class gets awarded posthumously to Cedric Diggory for bravery in the face of extreme danger in the defence of a fellow student at the cost of his own life."

He looked directly at Amos Diggory as he spoke and saw the happy tears that leaked down his face at the gesture.

"Agreed." Nodded Dumbledore "We shall vote."

The results turned out to be 'four abstaining, ten voted Nay, seventy seven voted Ai.

As Harry resumed his seat he sighed, he had been the cause of Cedric's death.

At least now, he could give something back to him for that.

* * *

AUTHORS NOTE: I want to thank all those people who reviewed after the last chapter, it means a lot to me. Please keep them coming. 


	77. CH77 Surprises

Chapter 77 – Surprises

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:16__th__September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Girls Bathroom_

_Time:Afternoon_

Three hours after returning from the Wizengamot, Harry and Fleur were waiting in Myrtle's Bathroom to see the results of his test; the ghost in question was currently not there. Between his fingers Harry was rubbing the galleon that Hermione had charmed for use by the DA the year before.

It had been two and a half hours since he had signalled the DA with their coins and was interested to see how many would turn up.

He had already received and replied to letters from Angelina, Alicia, Lee and the Weasley twins about whether they should find a way to attend which he had replied no to as he would talk to them later.

The door opened five minutes later, before the pair, to admit every member of the DA still at Hogwarts, many of them, especially the guys, were looking slightly awkward at actually being in a girls bathroom.

"You called." Grinned Ginny as they walked into one of the least visited rooms in the school.

"I did." He replied "But before I tell you the reason why I called this meeting, let me ask a question. Put your hand up if you didn't get my summons and were told by one of the others that I had called you?"

Hanna Abbott, Terry Boot and Dean Thomas all rather slowly raised their hands, rather embarrassed that they had not had the sense to keep carrying their coins around with them.

Harry had expected more to keep theirs with them since the DOM but that was a lot better than he had hoped for.

"Don't be embarrassed I was just curious, that's all." Turning around he picked up a long piece of cloth that was lying on the ground beside him "Everyone grab a hold, we are going on a little trip."

"Portkeys can't pass through the wards." Interrupted Hermione.

"They can if they are made by someone as powerful as Adam and they are keyed into the wards so the Headmaster is not alerted when we leave." He explained, making Hermione go very quiet, much to the others amusement.

As they all took hold they felt the familiar pull of a portkey as they vanished from Hogwarts.

* * *

Reappearing at the Chateau, most of the group stumbled as they landed.

"That was fun." Groaned Justin as they climbed to their feet.

"Where are we and why are we here anyway?" asked Hannah.

"You're about to be recruited." Explained Ron as he and Hermione moved next to Harry and Fleur.

"Come again?" asked Susan.

"You know the masked stranger who saved us on the train and who stopped the Death Eaters attack on my house?" Asked Hermione.

There were various nods and noises of acknowledgment.

"Well Harry, Fleur, Ron and I all now work for him."

Several chins dropped.

"How on earth did that happen?" asked Katie.

"Well Fleur and I joined back before summer finished and then we recruited Hermione and Ron a couple of days ago."

"As you've sided with him I'm assuming he is not exactly evil." Guessed Parvati.

"He wants to get rid of Voldemort and anyone else who threatens his allies or the safety of the public." Explained Fleur.

"What's his name?" asked Lavender.

"No one outside of the Court of Commanders knows that," explained Harry "Fleur and I are both in the Court but we are unable to tell you, but his title is The Avatar."

"That name sounds familiar." Padma thought aloud "Where do I know that from?"

"I recognised it to," commented Hermione "I've been doing research on it in the library but I haven't found anything yet."

Fleur and Harry mentally exchanged a look before turning their attention back to the others.

"I'll help when we get back." Smiled Padma.

"Tell us more about The Avatar and what he plans to do?" asked Ginny, neatly changing the subject back to more relevant matters.

Over the next fifteen minutes Harry and Fleur explained as much as they could about The Alliance, answering as many questions as they could, including telling them that they were mated (he had visibly seen Cho's face sink when he had told them), what had happened over the summer and who were members of The Alliance.

When it came to signing on Harry was pleased to see that as soon as he had answered the question:

"Do you trust The Avatar?"

And he immediately answered.

"Yes."

That no less than half of the DA immediately moved to sign the parchment, it made him feel honoured to think that they trusted his opinion that much.

The other DA members were not far behind the others in signing; only taking a few moments to think about it before joining the queue.

Once the last few people had signed and donned their rings Harry rolled up the contract and sat down in one of the empty chairs.

"Thanks everyone, now if all of you who have just joined can stay seated for a few minutes, I need to tell you something that Hermione and Ron already know so they are going to head back to the school."

At Hermione's confused look he explained.

"What our plans are etc, who's doing what, there's no point in you hearing things twice."

Nodding their heads slowly, as if not quite believing him the pair took a hold of a smaller rope that Fleur was carrying before the trio portkeyed out.

"So Harry, what else does our esteemed leader have planned?" asked Lavender.

"A Party." He replied grinning after quickly checking his watch.

"A...A what?" Ginny replied shocked.

"A joint surprise party for Fleur whose birthday is today and Hermione whose birthdays is on Wednesday."

"I don't believe it." Exclaimed Parvati "We're her dorm mates and she never told us."

"Imagine how I felt then when I realised that I had forgotten about Hermione's, Ron's, not to mention yours and yours Ginny and Neville for the last six years, especially as Neville's birthday is right on top of mine." Added Harry "I can't believe you lot are still friends with me."

"We'll forgive you Harry." Smiled Ginny "And given your childhood, can we blame you for not remembering birthdays."

"Anyway, regardless of that, I need all your help to set things up."

"How can we help?" asked Colin.

"Well I need to keep both of them occupied for a few hours. Colette, Tonks and Buffy are having a 'girl's night in', or at least Fleur thinks they are, so she will want to keep herself occupied until then so Ron will coincidentally be challenging her to prove how good at duelling she is in my classroom."

"But she's a duelling champion." Exclaimed Ginny "He doesn't stand a chance."

"Do you really think Ron will accept coming second place," smiled Harry "He will keep her occupied for fifty minutes or so. As for Hermione, I need you Padma, as you so brilliantly volunteered to help her research The Avatar, to keep Hermione in the Library for a bit longer than that, while we prepare the ROR, Ron will come and get Hermione while Fleur cleans herself up after their duel, and yes I know she will do so as she always did if she could after our duels, and he will then bring Hermione up to the ROR which is coincidentally exactly where the 'girls night' is happening at around the same time. We should just need up to, what will be one hour from now once we go back in time to complete decorating the room. I know the ROR can do it for us, but that's no fun."

"You can count on me Harry." Smiled Padma.

"Thanks Padma, and by the way, don't worry about teachers in the corridors. I've talked to Professor Dumbledore and he has given permission for party attendees to move through the corridors up to twelve thirty tonight."

"Excellent." Grinned Dean, before looking worried "What about Booze?"

"Fire Whisky and Butter Beer," replied Harry "Courtesy of my bank account."

There were several cheers and Dean and Seamus slapped each others hands.

"What about presents?" asked Parvati worriedly "We'll look terrible if we turn up to a party without presents for them."

Harry grinned and reached into his pocket and withdrew a chain containing a device.

"Anyone know what this is?"

"How in Merlin's name did you get hold of a Time Turner?" asked Susan, her aunt had probably shown her one at some point.

"Courtesy of me." Came a male voice from the doorway.

Turning around the group got their first sight of Fleur's parents accompanied by her sister.

"Everyone, allow me to introduce Comte Dimitri Delacour of the French Council of Power, the stunning Comtesse Delphine Delacour, his stunning lady wife and the beautiful Lady Gabrielle Delacour, Fleur's sister who you may remember from the Triwizard Tournament."

Gabrielle blushed as she was introduced.

Neville was the first to move, standing and bowing formerly.

"Greetings Comte and Comtesse Delacour, Baron Neville Longbottom at your service."

Dimitri grinned and walked around the table to take Neville's hand.

"Call me Dimitri." He grinned, before sending a mock glare at Harry "And since my daughters mate has forgotten most of his manners, perhaps you can introduce me to your friends, rather than just referring to them as everyone?"

"Certainly Com..." he stopped when Dimitri sent him a look "Dimitri."

Turning to the table he began the introductions.

"On my right is my girlfriend, the beautiful Luna Lovegood."

Luna stood and curtsied.

"Next to her is Ginny Weasley, Harry's best friend's younger sister."

Ginny looked slightly annoyed at being addressed as Ron's younger sister rather than a woman in her own right, but still managed to mirror Luna's curtsey.

"The Creevey brothers Colin and Dennis, the Patil twins Parvati and Padma, Cho Chang, Hannah Abbott, Lavender Brown, Katie Bell, Susan Bones, Terry Boot, Michael Corner, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Anthony Goldstein, Ernie Macmillan, Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan and lastly Zacharias Smith."

As each was introduced they had stood and either bowed or curtsied to the Delacour's.

"Welcome to my home." He welcomed before turning back to Harry "You were saying."

"Those who want to will use the Time Turner to travel back nine hours and visit Merlin's Road in Paris. We will all be going in disguise so we are not recognised, I have arranged for a few of our Alumni DA members to meet us and travel with us to Paris, some will be in disguise others won't be, depending on what they did during their first run through of today, they obviously cannot be seen in two places at once, just remember they are not part of the group yet so say nothing about what we have already talked about. When we are finished we will travel back to Hogwarts and spend the remaining few hours preparing the ROR, I'm guessing that shopping will take quite a while that's why I need all your help to get the room ready in time."

"Is there a Gringotts in Paris?" asked Lavender.

"There is, but you won't need to go there," replied Harry "Anything you buy, whether for yourself or one of the birthday girls will be paid for by Dimitri and myself."

"We can't do that!" exclaimed Katie, at the same time as several others called out and the rest were left gapping "It would cost a fortune."

Harry turned to the only person in the room who was not looking shocked.

"Ginny, please can you tell those gathered here how much I gave you out of my inheritance?"

"Three million straight cash and enough shares to earn me another quarter million every year." She replied, only slightly embarrassed that she was now that rich.

"And I gave away several amounts like that," added Harry "I have five properties, four of which are ancient as well as a massive bank balance and average income and Dimitri is hardly poor either. We have already arranged this and we are also not going to let you leave Paris until you have each bought yourself something reasonably highly priced, so unless you start buying dozens of Dragons or Firebolt's you are not going to damage our bank balances."

Katie and several others opened their mouths to object but Harry kept going.

"And before you try to complain we will remind you that Hermione is my best friend and Fleur is my mate and Dimitri's eldest daughter and we will find it highly insulting if you try to refuse."

Everyone guessed from his tone that the insult bit was a joke but they reluctantly stopped trying to object.

"When do we leave?" asked Luna.

"In ten minutes, but before that I need to talk to Parvati and Padma, then after that Cho. So could you three follow me while the rest of you chat amongst yourselves?"

The trio looked at each other cautiously before standing and following him.

He led them out of the room and down into the sitting room before turning to them.

"Cho can you wait here while I speak briefly to the twins."

Cho nodded nervously and sat down while Harry led the twins to the other side of the large room, out of sight and just out of hearing range of Cho as she sat down on the sofa.

"Yes Harry?" Padma asked slightly nervously, not quite sure what to expect.

"This is two years overdue," he said to Parvati, before turning to Padma "Ron wanted to be here too, but to keep up the illusion to Hermione and Fleur that nothing is going on he had to go with them, he also said he would probably make a complete hash of the words and make it sound worse than it already is."

"What is it Harry?" asked Parvati, also rather nervously as they hadn't a clue what he was talking about, and Harry's worried look was not helping.

"Ron and I want to apologise for ruining the Yule Ball for you both two years ago. We were selfish in ignoring you and unfeeling for paying attention to others for the entire evening and we humbly apologise."

The twins stood still, not moving at all, shock was written all over their faces.

"And Ron and I hoped you would accept these," Harry continued, pulling two bouquets of roses from a concealed vase and handing them one each "As some form of an apology, and possibly forgive us for being so stupid as to ignore to two beautiful ladies right next to us for the entire evening...though it's most certainly two years too late."

The girls stared from the flowers to Harry and back again several times before managing to speak.

"You honestly think,"

"That we would turn down an apology,"

"That made you that nervous,"

"And was sealed with a dozen roses?"

"Other than Fleur and my failed attempt with Cho, I really haven't had much experience with girls." He admitted "And even less at apologising to them."

Harry had been expecting to be slapped for offering such a feeble apology two years late and ask for forgiveness with just a few roses.

He was, needless to say, very surprised when both of the twins leaned forward and kissed him on his cheeks, making him blush.

"Oh Harry," smiled Parvati "We'll forgive you Harry, if you forgive us for swapping on you?"

Harry didn't understand for a moment before it clicked in his mind.

"Wait a minute, which of you did I ask to the dance and which one did I take?"

"You asked me," replied Parvati, at least he thought it was Parvati in the Gryffindor jumper.

As with the Weasley twins, it was blind guess work to figure out which witch was which. It was normally easier with the Patil's as they wore house colours at most times, even now they were wearing jeans and tee shirts with their school jumpers over them.

"But went with me." Finished Padma, the one in a Ravenclaw jumper.

"And which one are you?"

"At the moment we are switched." Explained the one in the Gryffindor jumper.

"So you are Padma, not Parvati?"

"Correct." She nodded, pulling off her jumper and swapping it with her sister before donning her own house jumper "We switch every other day,"

"But for the ball, we decided to let you actually take who you thought you were taking." Replied Parvati.

"Is there any way to tell you two apart?" he asked.

They exchanged a grin, before leaning forward and whispering in his ear.

"There is,"

"But as you are not single,"

"We cannot show you."

As they leaned back, Harry froze for a moment before shaking himself out of the daze the revelation had put him in, looking back at them he saw they were grinning at him.

"Am I permitted to ask what the difference is and how many people actually know, or will that just earn me a pair of slaps."

Grinning at each other again they leaned forward again and whispered:

"As you are the first to ask, we shall tell you."

"I have half a tattoo around a part of my anatomy on my left side." Purred Padma.

"And I have the other half of the tattoo around a part of anatomy on my right side." Added Parvati.

"And only the Weasley twins know,"

"But they don't know which of us,"

"Is which."

"It was an amazing experience,"

"Two sets of twins in one bed."

Harry jumped back before they could say more, making the pair giggle; especially as he guessed which part of their anatomy they were probably talking about as regards their tattoos. Shooting a glance at their chest he quickly turned away as the twins giggled at him doing it.

"Come on Par," chuckled Padma as she and her sister linked arms "Let's leave Harry to talk to Miss Hosepipe over there."

As the pair walked out (concealing their roses from sight), Cho stood up and went over to Harry.

"Harry,"

"Cho,"

"I wan..." they both tried at the same time before laughing lightly.

"After you." He tried again.

"Harry, I want to apologise firstly for using you the way I did, I used you as a link to Cedric and it was wrong of me and should not be forgiven, the way I played with your feelings like that. I also want to apologise for getting the wrong idea about you and Hermione when you left our date. I now know that you were giving an interview to The Quibbler, but I should not have jumped to conclusions and given you the chance to explain."

"No, it was me who was in the wrong," interrupted Harry "I should have told you about it before hand and not spring it on you in the middle of our date."

Reaching for the vase he removed the last set of roses.

"Please accept these as an apology. I am with Fleur now, so please understand that these are not a bad attempt to ask if we can try again." He added quickly when her face rose as she saw the flowers then proceeded to sink after his last statement "But I want to be friends, I don't want us to be awkward around each other for the remainder of our time at school, do you forgive me?"

"If you forgive me." She asked.

"I do." He nodded.

"Then I do too." She smiled, hugging him quickly, before stepping back "Let's go shopping."


	78. CH78 Birthday Celebrations

Chapter 78 – Birthday Celebrations

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:16__th__September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Corridors_

_Time:Afternoon_

"Fancy some duelling practice?" asked Ron as he, Hermione and Fleur walked back through the corridors of Hogwarts.

Ron could tell that the girls had begun to wonder why exactly they had been sent back early when it made more sense to just hear the information again and then come home with the others rather than going to the trouble of making a second portkey.

He was pretty sure that Fleur, if she wasn't certain about what was going on, at the very least had an inkling of Harry's motives about sending them back were, but he was not going to say anything because Hermione certainly didn't know, he still couldn't believe it had never occurred to him to find out when her birthday was.

"You really think you can beat me Ron?" Fleur asked sceptically, either playing along with the deception or genuinely curious to see how good he was "I was The Under Eighteens Duelling Champion remember.

"How will we know unless we duel?" he replied smiling "I enjoy a challenge."

Changing directions, he started moving them towards Harry's classroom.

"Ron, what are you doing?" whispered Hermione "You can't challenge a professor to a duel."

"Why not? It's only a friendly duel."

"He can if he wants Eermione." Agreed Fleur "I want to see how good he is."

"Well I'm not going to watch while you make a fool of yourself." Replied Hermione "I'm going to the Library."

* * *

"Again." Panted Ron as he climbed to his feet.

"Ron, don't you think that's enough? We have been at it for nearly an hour and I have already defeated you twenty five times in a row. And besides, I need to get ready for the girl's night that Beaky is organizing"

"Once more, I'm feeling lucky." He breathed, moving back into a duelling stance.

"Sorry Ron, I have to go," she apologised as she stowed her wand in her robe and went towards the door. "But maybe we can duel again sometime."

"Ok, I'd like that." He nodded, stowing his wand in his own pocket.

"Goodbye Ron, see you later."

"Bye." He agreed.

As soon as the door was closed Ron dropped to the floor as if he was made of jelly.

"Bugger, that wasn't half exhausting." He groaned "That must have been a record for the most amount of curses received inside an hour."

He lay there for a few more minutes before hauling himself to his feet, casting some cleaning charms on himself and moving towards the door.

"Hermione and Fleur better appreciate all this."

* * *

"Anything Padma?"

"Nothing yet." She replied, closing another tome and returning it to its shelf "You?"

"No." Hermione sighed as she too returned her book to the shelf "This is almost as aggravating as trying to find information about The Guardian?"

"About that what?"

"The Guard..." started Hermione before remembering that only a couple of students actually knew who Adam was, the rest just thought he was a very powerful wizard "Oh God, I should not have told you."

"Told me what?" asked Padma again, turning all attention to Hermione.

"I shouldn't really tell you," replied Hermione "It's rather a big secret."

"Well, tell me then, you have already partially done so," urged Padma.

"Thinking about it, he never actually said it was a secret, it's just no one really told anybody."

"Well get to telling me then."

"Well, you see." Said Hermione uncertainly as the pair seated themselves at their table "You know Adam."

"Professor B.M. you mean?"

"Yes, well, he's not an ordinary wizard."

"Well that obvious, normal wizards don't carry staffs around."

"It's more than that," added Hermione "He's not a real wizard."

"What do you mean?" asked Padma, looking confused.

"Well he's actually a protector who works for the Gods."

Padma, moved back shocked.

"I know it's a lot to take in." added Hermione.

"Oh it's not that, I mean that's a surprise, but that's not what shocked me."

"What was it then?"

"You, someone who does not believe in anything unless there is hard proof, talking about 'Gods' as if they are fact."

"You don't seem to have any problem with the concept." Countered Hermione.

"My sister and I are Hindu Hermione," replied Padma "We already believe in deities, but knowing how you feel about some of Luna's ideas, I didn't think you would even consider the idea of 'Gods'."

"Fair point." Nodded Hermione "But seeing some of the magic he can perform as well as knowing that the Headmaster trusts him, you have to admit that the evidence leans towards 'The Gods' being fact."

"What magic do you mean?"

"Well for a start he is powerful enough to use a staff and after one of the MD lessons a portal opened in the classroom and tried to swallow him and Buffy, he was single handily able to close it."

"Why was it after them?"

"It was artificial; it was trying to pull them both back to Buffy's own dimension as her friends tried to bring her back from the dead."

"What, what and what!" exclaimed Padma "Artificial portals? Home dimension? Dead? What in Merlin's name is going on?"

"Well, they both fell through a portal during the summer and arrived here, Adam and the Headmaster are old friends apparently, they knew each other over a century ago."

"He can't have, he can't be more than thirty years old at the most."

"Try fifteen billion."

"That's impossible."

"Well that's what the book said, and he didn't disagree with what I said. He moves between dimensions protecting those that need protection."

"They why is he teaching at the school?"

Hermione sighed.

"You remember that creature that attacked us on the train."

"How could I forget?"

"Well that was given to Voldemort by Adam's twin brother, who you have probably guessed is evil. Adam is staying until he can deal with his brother."

"The whole DA needs to hear this." Commented Padma.

"You're probably right;" nodded Hermione "We will have to explain all we know during our first get together."

"Hey Hermione, hey Padma." Greeted Ron lowly as he walked up to them, earning a warning glance from Madam Pince.

"I take it you lost then." Smiled Hermione, noticing how he was breathing deeply.

"I didn't do too badly." He countered "I could have done worse."

"Did you win?" Hermione asked sceptically.

"Well, I wouldn't say win exactly..."

"What was the final score?" asked Padma.

Ron mumbled something inaudible.

"Sorry, we didn't catch that." Teased Padma.

"Twenty five...to none."

Both of the girls snorted while trying to keep their laughter as quiet as possible.

"I could have done worse." Pouted Ron.

"What, fifty to none." Returned Padma in the midst of her laughter.

"Why," tried Hermione "Why did you come here in the first place?"

"Harry's back, we're all meeting in the Room Of Requirements." Ron replied quickly, desperately trying to change the subject.

"When?"

"Now."

"Ok," gasped Hermione as their laughter finally started to die down "Give us a minute to pack up."

When they left the Library a few minutes later, Padma told them she had left her bag in the Library and doubled back.

As soon as Hermione, escorted by Ron, were out of sight she cast silencing charms on her shoes and took off like a rocket down the other route towards the ROR, she had to get there first.

* * *

"Come on, come on!" urged Harry as he filled up a row of glasses with wine that Dimitri had given them (subtly including a slight charm that reduced the affect of the alcohol, at least for several hours) "They will be here any second."

"Serves you right Harry," replied Dean as he swished and flicked a few streamers over the recreation of the Gryffindor Common Room "You should know what girls are like when they go shopping."

He barely had the chance to duck as over two dozen different objects were levitated and thrown at him by most of the females in the room, and considering there were DA, Order and Alliance members, Hogwarts teachers, more students from three of the four Hogwarts Houses, several Beauxbatons Alumni who arrived early and a few miscellaneous people like Andromeda who had come to help Harry, all inside of the room, there were quite a lot of ladies to throw things.

But luckily for Dean, most of the objects were cushions.

"I'll have you know Dean that you and Seamus were in the Quidditch shop a lot longer than any single woman spent in Madam Fontaine's." scolded Ginny as she helped Kreacher, Dobby and Winky arrange the food, her revelation causing much amusement to the ladies in the room and the embarrassment of aforementioned males.

"Stop talking, keep decorating PLEASE!" begged Harry.

"Calm down Harry," called Katie as she and Parvati flew around on her broom, charming candles to hover above the party "Fleur and Hermione are going to love you for this."

"The charms on the door are done." Andromeda interjected before moving over to help with the drinks.

"I have five years worth of missed parties to make up to Hermione and I promised Fleur that her party was going to be even better than my sixteenth." He replied, accepting Andromeda's words but not having the time to respond to them as he drew his father's wand so he could pour drinks from two bottles at once, no one seemed to notice him using two wands other than Adam on the other side of the room who was conjuring up furniture at an alarmingly fast rate.

"And it will be." Smiled Colette as she portkeyed in.

"Is everyone..."

"Yes Harry," she soothed, cutting him off in the middle of his panicked question "They will be here in about five seconds."

"Thank god. Is everyone coming?"

"Everyone except my sister," she replied, her mouth spreading into a grin "After the way you defeated her during the Duelling Competition and spurned her advances, I don't think she will ever be seen near you again."

On queue the portkey that Colette had taken with her brought another two dozen people into the room, Harry was thankful that he had had the sense to make the room many times larger than the actual Common Room that it was modelled after.

He wanted everything to be perfect, he had even tweaked the design so that the boys stairs led up to a couple of bedrooms (most of the rooms occupants were over the age of consent so he thought it was best to be prepared) and several quiet rooms filled with sofas if people just wanted to talk, whereas the girls stairs now led up to a door that somehow opened into the Astronomy Tower on the other side of the castle, in case any couples wanted to disappear up to it and...'stare at the stars'.

In the party that had just arrived where Olympe, several other Beauxbatons Professors, The Nets, Monique, Colette's parents, Viktor, quite a few Alumni from Beauxbatons and a few from Durmstrang (most of whom were from Fleur's year) and finally several younger and older Veela and their partners, including The Matriarch herself.

"That's more than I thought." Said Harry, about to work himself up into a panic again "We are going to need more glasses."

"Arry." Called Olympe, as she walked over to him, others rapidly moving out of her way to avoid being crushed "It will be fine, Fleur is going to fall in love with you all over again because of all the trouble you have gone to. From what I have heard you have spent over ten thousand on this party, including paying the fees for multi-person international portkey travel in Britain, France and Germany, travelling arrangements for the guests to get to the international portkey coordinates, new clothes for everyone who wanted them, catering arrangements, supplying cash to those who only received a few hours warning so they could buy presents for the birthday girls and the cost of sending out as many invitations as you did."

"Colette sent out the invitations for Fleur." He corrected as he tried to get busy again, only for Olympe to clamp her hand down on his shoulder, before pushing him back into a chair where she held him while Dimitri directed Gabrielle to sit on him and not let him move until the birthday girls arrived, much to Gabrielle's amusement and Harry's frustration.

Fortunately or unfortunately depending on your point of view, the door opened and Buffy, Tonks and a very exhausted Padma skidded in.

"They're coming!!" called Tonks.

"Ron and Hermione are coming in from one direction." Explained Padma.

"And Fleur is coming from the other direction." Finished Buffy.

Harry had never moved so fast, Gabrielle was so surprised when she was thrown off him by his rapid movement that she shrieked as she felt a moment of weightlessness before landing (luckily) on her feet.

"Everyone in positions. Quickly! Quickly!!" He urged "Nox."

As the candles went out, everyone went quiet.

As the door opened the three people entering were almost blasted back out again by the lights being relit and the combination of no less than sixty people from three different countries, two governments, three Hogwarts houses and two vigilantly organizations all calling out surprise in three different languages.

Fleur just stood there with wide eyes, looking like she needed to pinch herself to actually believe what she was seeing.

Hermione was leaning against the wall, with one hand clutched over her heart and her eyes bulging as she stared at the banner saying:

_HAPPY BIRTHDAY HERMIONE & FLEUR_

Even Ron who knew about the party almost jumped out of his skin at the scale of the thing.

"Wha...how...when di..." Hermione tried, but just could not manage the words.

"Happy birthday Hermione, Happy birthday Fleur." Smiled Ron, giving both a little push towards the crowd.

There were several minutes before either of the girls managed to say anything other than the names of the people shaking their hands or hugging them at their surprise at seeing them all in one place.

Finally Hermione managed to shake everyone off and call out.

"Who...Who...Who did all this?" Whilst gesturing to the scene around them.

As one, almost every eye or finger in the room was directed at Harry, another problem with having a distinctive scar, even those that didn't know him knew who he was.

"Harry?" she asked, walking up to him, her expression somewhere between shock and disbelief "You...you...did all this?"

He nodded slightly. Was it ok? What had he done wrong?

"All by yourself?"

"I had help." He replied. His voice rather uncertain.

"Only with the decoration." corrected Buffy.

"He got everyone together," added Neville "Arranged the transportation, got all the permissions for the portkeys from the Ministries, took everyone out to get new outfits and paid for every single thing, from the candles to the drink."

"Annoyingly." Muttered Dimitri, Harry had somehow managed to arrange with the Goblins that anything party related that he paid for would actually be taken out of Harry's vault instead of his own, including the new dress he had bought for his daughter.

"He also came up with the idea for the charms on the door to change your clothes." Grinned Tonks.

"He wh...oh my." exclaimed Hermione as she looked down and realised that she and Fleur were both now dressed in deep blue cocktail dresses that fell to just above their knees accompanied by matching high heeled shoes.

Conjuring a full length mirror, Tonks turned it so that the pair could see what they looked like. Their hair had also somehow been made to look like it had just been done by a hair stylist, Fleur's was hanging straight down her back and Hermione's was curled lightly around her face and shoulders, both of them had very light make up around their eyes and mouths.

"You did all this...for us?" asked Fleur, turning to Harry, walking up beside Hermione, her expression was also half way between shock and disbelief.

"It's ok isn't it? I know it's a few days early Hermione, but I thought it better to celebrate both yours and Fleur's at once. That's alright isn't it?"

The pair just stood in front of him for a moment before Hermione launched herself at him and pulled him into a death grip of a hug, any harder and she would break bones.

"Harry," she said sounding teary "It's...I'm...No one has ever done anything like this for me before."

She pulled back slightly, there were tears running down her face, but the beaming smile she was wearing offset some of the tension that had been gripping Harry for the last week.

"It's wonderful Harry, thank you SO much."

She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek before moving aside as Fleur pulled him into an even tighter hug which was followed immediately by an extremely passionate kiss (and an earth shattering amount of love poured down the link), earning many wolf whistles and cheers from the crowd.

Eventually she pulled back slight and rested her forehead against his.

"Arry." She whispered "When you promised me a party bigger than yours, I knew you would keep your promise, but I never, ever suspected ANYTHING like this, it's the best birthday present I have ever had."

"I would go to hell and back for you Fleur." He whispered back.

"Stop kissing," complained Gabrielle "I want to eat."

* * *

The better part of the first hour was spent with people congratulating the two ladies, renewing old acquaintances and making new friends, Harry had managed to find a secluded corner where he could sit down and relax for a few minutes out of sight of most of the room, he was joined temporarily by Ron and Neville before Colette and Luna dragged the pair out onto the dance floor to give him some time to relax after all the work he had done that day. He had at least ten minutes to himself before someone called out.

"Potter!"

It wasn't loud enough for the entire room to hear but several people did turn their heads to see a dark haired young woman marching towards him.

Heaving himself out of his seat, not really putting much effort in due to his tired state, he had just managed to straighten up when the slap hit, almost knocking him over.

It took him several seconds to recover before he looked up to see an annoyed looking French woman glaring at him and half a dozen people looking at them both.

"Good to see you to Monique." He smiled, a slight twinge remaining on his cheek were she had hit him, it wasn't an overly powerful hit, just enough to get her point across...whatever it was.

"I've got a bone to pick with you Potter." She glared, putting her hands on her hips.

"You're not angry because I didn't tell you who I was are you?"

"No, I'm not angry at you for not telling us who you were, I'm angry at you for telling the entire school that I was going to take up the DAA post before I had decided to take it."

"But you probably were going to take it." He smiled.

"Yes, but you did not know for certain that I probably would."

"I probably did."

"Yes, you probably knew that I probably would, but you couldn't certainly know."

"I probably certainly knew that you probably would."

"Yes, but even thought you probably certainly knew that I probably would, you didn't certainly know that although I probably would there was no probability that I certainly would." She finished satisfied.

There was several seconds of silence before Harry managed:

"What?"

"I have no idea; I don't think I could say that again if I tried." Sighed Monique dropping her arms to her sides. The entire conversation thus far had taken place in French so most of those around them must have been completely lost by the constant repetition of words.

"You finished being angry?"

She paused for a second before nodding.

"Good, then give me a hug and let's have a chat."

After hugging and seating themselves the pair settled down to talk.

"So how's Beauxbatons without me?" grinned Harry.

"Less fun for all the young witches." Smirked Monique "But luckily for me their grades are still as high as last term so I'm obviously doing something right."

"You were the best student I had." He smiled "Of course you would do well."

"It still feels weird to know that I was taught by someone a year younger than me and that he was still a better dueller."

"If it makes you feel any better, I was using a Time Turner to repeat almost every day of the summer six more times to train, that's why I got better throughout the term."

"I would ask how you got hold of a Time Turner, but then again being with Fleur Delacour I don't think I need to ask. So you are what, almost seventeen now?"

"I'm older than that," he replied with a sly smile "I spent a long time training with another of Hogwarts new Professors."

"How long?"

"My secret." He replied, grinning as one tune from the Wizarding Wireless ended and a slow tune began "Would you care to dance?"

She looked at him surprised for a moment before smiling and standing.

"Yes My Lord, I would."

Standing, he took her hand and led her out onto the dance floor, he was vaguely aware of Luna and Neville dancing to his left, their bodies pressed together, Luna's head lying on Neville's shoulder as they gently swayed.

As the pair reached the floor, Monique glided into his arms.

"Let's see how well the most handsome Professor Beauxbatons has had in years can dance." She smiled as they began to move.

* * *

Fleur finally managed to get away from the mass of friends, relatives and distant relations surrounding her and made her way towards the food table for a breather and a drink.

Picking up a glass of wine she took a long drink before taking a deep breath.

"Happy birthday Fleur." Smiled Ron as he came along the table to stand beside her, holding a much smaller plate of food than he normally would "Hungry?"

"Thank you." She smiled, helping herself to one of the king prawns off his offered plate "So how exactly did you and Harry do all this?"

"You would not want me to give away the secret would you?" He grinned, before spotting something in the crowd and tensing slightly.

Fleur followed his line of sight and saw Hermione dancing with Viktor.

An idea sprung into her mind as she sent a mental message to Harry.

* * *

A smile spread on Harry's face as Fleur's message came through.

"What?" asked Monique, wondering what his change of expression was caused by.

"An idea," he grinned "Tell me, have you met Viktor Krum?"

"No."

"Would you like to?"

* * *

"Do you think it will work?" asked Tonks as she, Buffy, Adam and the recently arrived Dumbledore stood watching the game play out "If they are in fact actually doing anything."

"They are," said Adam with one of his half smiles "Fleur asked Ron to dance seconds after he had looked at Hermione and Viktor and at the same time Harry smiled and he and Monique changed direction, they are definitely doing something."

"And it is almost certainly involving Miss Granger and Mr Weasley." Added Dumbledore.

"There they go." Commented Buffy as Harry and Monique came to a stop beside Hermione and Krum and after a few words and a bow by each of the men they swapped partners as Harry and Hermione started moving over the dance floor.

"Told you." Smiled Adam as their eyes followed the two couples around the dance floor, before in a very clever and even quicker move Harry and Fleur pushed their partners together and danced away before Hermione and Ron even realised they were dancing with each other "I believe you both owe me a galleon."

"Shoot," Grumbled Buffy "We will pay you tomorrow."

"These dresses don't really have any places for money storage." Grinned Tonks.

* * *

"That worked well." Smiled Fleur as she and Harry slowed their dancing as the music changed.

"Do you think it will work?" replied Harry.

"It already is, look."

Turning them around Harry could see Hermione and Ron doing a strange attempt to dance closely but not make it look like they were touching, though as the new song began they both looked at each other slightly nervously before Ron gently put his arm around Hermione and pulled her close.

"Finally!" he exclaimed "I thought it would never happen."

"This really is wonderful Arry, thank you." Beamed Fleur, lowering her head onto his shoulder.

* * *

The rest of the evening proceeded well, with much dancing, laughter and fun all around with people coming and going all the time, some just stopping for flying visits, others intending to stay until the end.

It was many hours into the party when Harry found himself dancing slowly with Ginny after getting passed around through almost every female in the room. He had tried to escape the game of 'Pass the Potter' once but it was Fleur no less that directed him back towards the next lady in line who at that time happened to be a very eager Gabrielle.

"I hope you do something like this for my birthday Harry." Smiled Ginny as she laid her head on his chest "Hermione looks so happy dancing with Ron, I don't think they will ever forget it."

"Let's hope not," he smiled "Or else I will have to arrange another party for them."

Ginny giggled into his chest, her laughter was nice and soft, just like her hair, she looked right leaning against his...

Harry almost tripped over his own feet when he realised the line of thought he was just engaged in.

"What's wrong Harry?" she asked.

"What, I'm not allowed to trip once after dancing for an entire evening?" He joked, quickly recovering from his mistake "I think I might need to sit down for a while."

Ginny began to guide him over to a nearby chair but much to Harry's relief she was caught by a slightly tipsy Colin Creevey and he pulled her back onto the dance floor.

Harry quickly made his way back to his secluded corner.

It wasn't possible; he could not think about anyone other than Fleur...The mating prevented it...It must have been the alcohol...Yes, yes, that was it, he had had several glasses of wine, and even with the charms making the drink less alcoholic it must be affecting him, Colin's state was proof enough that the charm only went so far.

He did not get the chance to think for long as Colette pulled him back to the floor for another slow dance.

For the moment Harry forgot about whatever it was that just happened with Ginny and continued to enjoy the party, whilst at the same time the eyes of the Phoenix necklace that Ginny had given him stopped glowing and dimmed back to their original state.

* * *

It was hours later in the early hours of the morning when the party had died down and less than twenty people remained, that the group, most of whom were under twenty five consisting mainly of DA members and the newer Hogwarts teachers, were seated in one of the rooms full of comfy sofa's that Harry had created, where Fleur and Hermione were presented with a huge pile of presents.

"Dive in." smiled Harry at the pairs gob smacked looks, only to have Gabrielle, who had been falling asleep until the presents appeared, make a dash for the pile and began dividing up the presents, much to the mirth of the others.

Gabrielle was a lot faster at dividing up the presents than the pair were at opening them but as there were so many it was unsurprising that their smaller individual piles were growing rather than shrinking.

Amongst the many gifts that were opened (of which a large portion of Hermione's were books), some of the most noticeable were Hermione receiving a complete set of Wizarding Encyclopaedias from the DA (there were a LOT of books in the set), a book called 'Magical Cryptids: A Wizards Guide To All The Magical Creatures That May Exist' from Neville and Luna (probably an attempt by Luna to convince Hermione that half the creatures she believed in were real), a small thirty centimetre crystal sculpture of an otter from Buffy (someone had obviously told her about her Patronus shape), a fifty galleon voucher for WWW from the twins (half the people there wondered if she would EVER actually use it), a pair of wand holsters from Tonks and Bill (one for her torso and one for her arm which could be made to turn invisible), a book on wandless magic from Adam and a couple of Muggle fictional books from the start of a series entitled the 'Discworld Novels' by Terry Prachett from Ron and Ginny, when asked they said that they had talked to Hermione's parents to get some suggestions, they hoped Hermione would become hooked and start spending some of the money that Sirius's Will demanded that she spend buying the rest of the very long series.

On top of all that were three presents that caused Hermione to go the colour of Ron's hair when she opened them. Fleur gave her a rather sexy flowing red night gown, Lavender and the Patil twins gave her a book entitled 'The Best Way To Get The Most Out Of Your Man' and from the sly looks on their faces it was not referring to how to get him to open doors for you, and lastly and most embarrassingly was a very skimpy and provocative set of underwear including stockings and suspenders from Colette as well as a card which Ginny managed to read aloud before Hermione could stop her saying:

"If these don't get Ron into your bed nothing will."

Earning lots of laughter and giggling from everyone else present, with the exception of Hermione who was so red she was almost spontaneously combusting and Ron who subtly slipped a pillow into his lap in an attempt to cover up his reaction to the mental image he had just formed; fortunately Gabrielle was too busy dividing up the rest of the presents to hear the comment as well.

Fleur also received many gifts including a crystal sculpture like Hermione's of a stag from Buffy, a selection of hairs from Tonks and Bill with a note saying:

'We thought you might like some different shapes and proportions to test drive'

Which utterly confused everyone else in the room except for Colette who grinned and Delphine whose eyes widened slightly before a grin appeared on her face as she realised what it meant.

Fleur also received several sets of lingerie from Colette, that along with Hermione's were going to be on the minds of many member of the DA's for weeks (and from the looks that the Patil twins were exchanging it wasn't just the boys who liked the imagery), a few books of varying types including her own copy of 'The Best Way To Get The Most Out Of Your Man' to which Fleur leaned over and whispered something in the ears of Lavender and the twins which caused their eyes to bulge before they turned to look at Harry with lop sided beaming smiles. She got several other things including a beautiful dress from her parents but nothing else of much note until they got to the presents from Harry.

Once all the other presents were unwrapped and Gabrielle and Delphine made their exits, Harry produced several small piles of gifts which he placed in front of Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville and Luna.

"What's this Harry?" asked Ginny, staring at the pile in front of her.

"These are the presents I should have given you for your birthdays since I have known each of you."

"Oh Harry," sighed Hermione "You didn't have to go to..."

"Yes I did and no I won't take them back." He interrupted, before grinning widely "So get unwrapping."

Harry had tried to get each of them a present for every year of Hogwarts he had known them though it had not been easy.

Luna, as he had only known her since the previous year got a single Muggle book called 'On The Track Of Unknown Animals'.

Ginny, as he had known her for five years now, received three books, 'How To Be A World Class Seeker' as she would probably be his reserve this year, the Autobiography of the last England Seeker, containing all the training techniques he used to get as good as he was, and '100 Different Ways To Use The Bat Bogey Hex' just for fun. She also received a gold necklace, similar in design to the one she had gotten him, also with a phoenix on it.

Neville got several books; 'Rare And Exotic Plants', 'How To Master Duelling', 'The History Of Magical Plants' as well as a pair of wand holsters like Hermione's and a Muggle plant called a Bonsai Tree.

Ron received the Autobiography of the England Keeper that played along with the Seeker whose autobiography Ginny received, he also got a book called 'The History Of Quidditch At Hogwarts' as well as two other items. At this point Ron made a comment about Harry turning into Hermione with all the books he had given out, but quickly retracted the comment when he unwrapped the last two items. A set of new wizard robes (so along with the set that the twins gave him when they started becoming profitable he now had two sets) and a small box containing the snitch used by the Chudley Cannons in their first ever Quidditch match.

Then they finally got to Hermione's presents.

Much to her delight the first four presents were books; Harry had chosen them very carefully; 'Magical Schools: The History Series' (contained 'Hogwarts A History' and the corresponding books for Beauxbatons and Durmstrang), 'Powerful Magical Beings Through the Ages', listing the most powerful magical being in Wizarding history (including a small bit on the Avatar, just to tease her, knowing that she would try to look into his history, and the tiny paragraph would only spur her on), 'The Magical Theory Behind Magic', that one just looked interesting and lastly 'The Lost History Of Wizards', which told all the bits of Wizarding history that the Wizarding World had tried to forget, including a rather interesting chapter on the history of the Elementals, all four books were very early editions which made them all the rarer.

Hermione's last present was the one that Harry was most nervous about, it was the one that Adam had suggested because of the way that 'Hermione moved her fingers'; he just prayed she liked it.

Harry was on tenterhooks as she undid the wrapping around the very carefully detailed wooden box.

As she undid the catch Fleur took a hold of his hand and squeezed it comfortingly, whilst sending soothing thoughts down the link.

As she lifted the lid Hermione gasped before turning to him in shock.

"How did you know?" she asked, her eyes so wide that Harry thought they were about to fall out of their sockets "I never told you, I never told anyone at Hogwarts."

"Adam recognised the way you moved your fingers." Explained Fleur as Hermione withdrew the hand carved wooden instrument.

"A violin!" exclaimed Ginny "You play the violin?"

Hermione nodded slightly embarrassed.

"I know everyone was put off from me because I love books so much, I didn't want to risk losing any more chances at making friends by admitting that I am rather good at playing what's considered a rather boring instrument, so I left it in my trunk all through our first year."

"Oh Hermione." Parvati sighed "Don't be silly."

"We were a bit put off by your bookish nature at first," added Lavender "But that was virtually gone by the end of our first year and nonexistent by the end of our second."

"By then we had got to know you." Continued Parvati "You were good to go to with essay problems,"

"You knew everything any of us could ever want to know about magic,"

"You were good to talk to about the correct way to cast spells,"

"You were fun to talk to because you could always be relied upon to roll your eyes when we started talking about what to wear and what boys to date,"

"And you constantly made sure we pushed ourselves to get the best grades possible." Concluded Parvati, ending her and Lavender's string of points.

"Your part in protecting the Philosophers Stone knocked the idea of you being just a bookworm for six." Agreed Padma "Besides, us Ravenclaw's just thought you were in the wrong house."

"That is until the stone," grinned Seamus "That's when we all knew you were a 'Gryff' through and through."

"Here here." Agreed Dean.

Hermione was crying happy tears by the time they had finished.

"Thank you." She said softly looking around at the crowd, before turning back to her new violin "I never wanted to risk mine getting damaged by bringing it to school, so I never brought it after first year, even if I only were to play in private."

"This one won't get damaged," explained Adam "It's got enough protective charms to stop anything short of a blasting hex from damaging it. It will also stay permanently in tune, you will never need to replace the strings so they only thing you need to do is the odd bit of polishing, I removed that charm as I thought you might like to do that yourself."

"Yes, it's relaxing to do." She agreed, before moving over to Harry and pulling him into a hug "Thank you Harry, thank you."

"My pleasure." He smiled as he returned the hug.

Pulling back, Hermione returned to her seat and carefully placed the violin back in its wooden case and closed the lid.

"Aren't you going to give us a tune?" asked Luna.

"I get embarrassed playing in front of crowds." She replied, shaking her head "Besides, I haven't practised in a while. And there is at least one gift I want to see."

"What?" asked Ginny.

"Harry's gift to Fleur." She smiled turning to the man in question, glad that her change of subject had worked.

"Yes, come on Harry," smiled Lavender "What have you got for your lovely lady?"

Smiling, Fleur turned her head towards her mate and put on a joking expression that clearly said 'Well?'

She had no doubt that he had got her something, she just wondered if he was going to be embarrassed because it was something he did not want his friends to see.

Smiling, Harry produced a large flat box that he handed to Fleur.

Curious, Fleur opened the box and unfolded the thin paper wrapping.

The others watched as Fleur's eyes went from excited to downright astonished in a second.

"What, what is it?" asked Colette moving to have a look before almost tripping over her own feet when she saw "Merlin's...Merlin's..."

"What in the name of the founders could make Colette so speechless that she can not even think about one of her Merlin's garment exclamations?" Asked Tonks moving to the pair.

"Holy Merlin's Beard." she exclaimed "Where on earth did you get your hands on Acromantulas silk?"

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, every woman in the room was on their feet and moving towards the box, every one but Buffy.

"What's so special about the silk from a giant spider?"

"It's nigh on impossible to get, Acromantulas don't like giving away their silk as it has to be made specially if you want to turn it into garments." replied Padma, who was almost salivating over the material "It more expensive than platinum, more expensive than, than, well you get the idea."

"It's also wonderful to make dresses out of," explained Colette "Its extremely strong and tough, and won't easily fray or tear."

Fleur carefully reached into the box and held up the uncut silk, it was currently just a sheet of silvery semi transparent material.

Fleur, whose face was still staring in shock, slowly looked to Harry, but she seemed unable to voice her question.

"Aragog," he answered "He gave me enough for one dress for you and he promised me by the day after tomorrow to have enough for all those ladies going to the Equinox Ball."

More chins dropped, but most surprising was when Colette rushed over and dropped to her knees in front of Harry.

"Harry, please let me design and make the dresses, I'm willing to beg if it will help."

"I was going to pay you to get your company to do it but if you want to do it yourself that's ok with meEEEE."

The slight yell at the end of his sentence was caused by Colette hugging him so hard he groaned.

"Is that the lot?" asked Seamus, trying to distract the ladies away from the silk.

"I do have one more set of gifts," explained Harry, pulling out a long thin box, the same box that he had purchased from Madam Enigma's in France "But there were only seven available."

"They are for Arry, myself, Eermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville and Luna." explained Fleur, still slightly stunned from receiving the silk.

"What are they?" asked Luna as the others named moved closer to Harry to see what he was about to show them.

Opening the box revealed, set in foam padding, seven gold watches on chains. Except these watches had no hands or numbers on them, but around the edge of the box were slots filled with lots and lots of little hands and discs with worlds like 'Sleeping', 'Work', 'Home' and 'Mortal Peril' as well as many more blanks.

"Are they what I think they are?" asked Ron.

"I think they are what you think they are." Nodded Ginny.

"Watch Clock's?" asked Neville.

"Watch Watches actually, but yes they are." Confirmed Harry "Mobile versions of what The Burrow has."

"Just one costs a small fortune." Exclaimed Hermione "And you got seven of them."

"It was worth it." Replied Harry before he started taking the watches out and handing them out, there were four smaller more delicate watches which Harry handed to the ladies and three slightly larger ones for the men.

"You can have as many hands as you want on them," explained Harry "And a simple enlargement charm works on them if they get too crowded to be seen at the size they are."

"All you need to do is get a bit of hair or blood from the person you want to watch, drop it on the hand then hold it to the face of the watch and hit the button on the top and it will attach," explained Fleur "Likewise with the points of the dial, hold your wand to them, say the word you want them to display and then hold then do the same as for the hands, you can have as many as you can fit on the face, they will rearrange themselves to the best possible fit."

What followed was a process of much hair exchanging and attaching as they all added each other to their watches as well as clock points until they all at least had 'Sleeping', 'Work/School', 'Home', 'Hospital', 'Shopping', 'Making Love' (several of them were a bit unsure about that one), 'Out', 'Hiding', 'Secret Mission', 'Locked Up', 'Fighting' and 'Mortal Peril' around the edge and each of the watch owners as hands.

"We had better send out owl's tomorrow for hair from our families." Said Ginny as everyone had done all the hands that they could.

Before the talking could continue Adam spoke up:

"Before everyone continues their conversations, I have a present for someone."

"You've given both of us gifts already." Said Fleur "Whose this one for?"

"Harry." He replied standing up and moving over to him and moving the coffee table which had been off to the side so that it was closer to Harry than everyone else "Call this a birthday present for all of your birthdays that I missed and a gift for someone who I think will appreciate it."

"What?" asked Harry cautiously.

"Everyone close your eyes please." Asked Adam.

With a bit of coaxing everyone did as he asked.

Harry was rather apprehensive as to what Adam was about to give him, he didn't think that Adam was the sort to give chocolate or any other sort of small gift, he got the feeling that whatever he was about to receive was going to be important.

Harry felt magic being cast in front of him, a summoning charm of some kind if he had to guess, this was followed by the sound of something hard being placed on the table but the sound did not make it obvious as to what it was. He then felt a charm similar to Finite Incantatem shortly followed by a cracking sound.

"You can open your eyes."

As his eyelids slid back and his eyes readjusted to the light, he just had time to recognise the sight of a large fifteen centimetre tall shiny blue stone before it burst open.

There were many gasps and a couple of small screams as people jumped back or shielded their eyes from the bits of what looked like, but obviously were not stone.

Lowering his arm, Harry found himself looking at a small creature.

It was no more than twenty centimetres long.

It was coated in a stringy substance that had obviously made up the inside of what was evidently an egg.

It was a blue sapphire in colour, had a long slim body covered in scales, its head was pointed and reptilian and its spine and tail had a line of dark blue fur running down its length (similar to that of his Avatar form, except obviously Harry had fur over the rest of his body as opposed to scales).

Its eyes were currently closed.

But its most striking feature were the two limbs which it stretched out from its shoulders, they were long and covered in a thin membrane of skin.

Wings.

The creature that was on the table in front of him...was a...

"A dragon."

AUTHOR NOTE 1: For all those of you that started shouting at the screen, no I did not steal the egg idea from Eragon for one very important reason.

I came up with the idea and everything else you will hear about the subject in the next chapter long LONG before I ever heard of Eragon or Saphira and although I have since read the books and watched the film the idea is much older than my knowledge of said stories, and I also assure you that although VERY similar the names of the two dragons are complete coincidences, though I have had to add an autocorrect option to Word to stop me writing the wrong name accidentally as my fingers work on automatic and I have written down the wrong name more than once.

AUTHORS NOTE 2: Also I am sorry for this chapter took so long, I thought this chapter was with my grammar and spelling beta who I need to hear back from before posting when in fact it was not, so my blunder there, very sorry.


	79. CH79 Getting To Know You

Chapter 79 – Getting To Know You

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:17__th __September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Room Of Requirements_

_Time:Early Morning_

"A dragon." Exclaimed Lavender

"No," corrected Hermione excitedly "It's a wyvern, they were native only to Britain before dragons spread this far and wiped the out, they are supposed to be extinct."

"Evidently not." Added Tonks

"What's the difference between a dragon and a wyvern?" asked Dean.

"All dragons have two wings and four legs, wyverns have two wings and two legs, they are also more streamlined." Replied Padma "Where did you get it?"

"From a wyvern, surprisingly." Adam replied in his usual dry manor.

"But they were supposed to have gone extinct hundreds of years ago." Colette commented.

"The eggs can remain un-hatched for thousands of years." Explained Adam "This one is over five hundred years old."

"How do they know when to hatch?" asked Ginny.

"They stay in their eggs for a minimum of a hundred years developing and after that; if they can not hear the sounds of other wyverns they can remain un-hatched for between a thousand, two thousand or even three thousand years."

"Last time I checked none of us sounded like flying lizards." Joked Buffy.

"It was put in magical stasis just after it began to hatch." Explained Adam.

"Why?"

"Wyverns are sociable animals, as well as being highly intelligent and slightly magical. They were friendly with humans at one time; offering protection from their enemies in exchange for flocks of livestock bred specifically for them to hunt and places to nest. Unfortunately they could not match the numbers of the dragons that came over from the continent that eventually became the Hebridean Black's and Welsh Green species. Wyverns are fast and agile but not as powerful as a dragon of the same size. This egg came from a colony that was under attack when the wyvern was hatching, the humans that the wyverns had an alliance with took this and four other eggs to safely; unfortunately the others were discovered by the human's enemies and destroyed."

All the time that they were talking the wyvern that had been trying to stand, it had just managed to support itself on its hind legs and the claws in its wings, though it still had its eyes closed.

It ambled around the table for a bit before wandering in Harry's direction, if anyone had been watching they would have noted that when it had hatched it was facing directly at Harry and through all its stumbling about it was still facing the same way.

They watched closely as its eyes slowly crept open to reveal slit like sapphire eyes.

The wyvern stared into Harry's eyes for several seconds, as if studying him, before a beam of blue light shot from the eyes of the wyvern and hit Harry's, making him jump back rubbing his eyes.

"Arry!" called Fleur as she drew her wand and aimed it at the creature.

"The Bond of Communication!" gasped Hermione "That wyvern just granted you the gift of dragon speech."

"What!" exclaimed Harry.

"I just gave you the ability to understand me." Came the reply, except it did not come from Hermione, it came from the wyvern.

The voice was female but sounded in no way reptilian or artificial, it sounded just like the voice of any normal woman, or to be more appropriate, any normal girl, if she had been human she would have sounded about twelve or thirteen, old enough to understand reason but with a bit of attitude behind it if she did not get her way.

"Err...Hello." tried Harry. He thought he'd be used to this by now, he could speak snake and now understand spiders, why was he surprised that he could understand this creature.

"Hello," she replied, her tone told him she was definitely making fun of him "What is your name?"

"Harry, Harry Potter." He replied "What's yours?"

"I...don't have one yet." She sighed, lowering her head as if embarrassed.

"Do you want one?"

"What would you suggest?" she asked hopefully, raising her head again.

"What about Sapphire?" he asked, observing the colour of her body and eyes.

EYES

Harry actually clicked his fingers as it dawned on him, looking down at his house ring he looked at the pair of blue eyes staring back at him and immediately realised what they were supposed to be, they were this wyverns eyes.

"Sapphire," she tried, testing out how it fitted "Yes Sapphire, I like that."

"Err Harry," Hermione asked "What is it saying?"

The pair turned to the group who were all staring at him like he had grown another head, it made sense to him when he realised the pair must have been speaking whatever language wyverns speak.

"I just gave her a name." he smiled "Everyone, meet Sapphire."

Several of the others moved to say hello or wave before stopping, not quite sure how to say hello to a wyvern.

The only three who actually finished their greetings were Fleur, Luna and Adam. Adam bowing and Fleur and Luna curtsying, Sapphire lowered her head in response but as she was still new to standing her wings gave out and she fell to the table, banging her head on its surface.

A couple of the boys snickered but stopped when they were sent death glares by the girls, Dean was unfortunate enough to be next to Buffy who hit him in the arm, he was going to have bruises the next day.

Sapphire tried to regain her composure as best she could during the distraction.

"Why does she look so like a dragon if she isn't a dragon?" asked Neville.

"Same ancestry," Adam replied "There were originally four groups of dragons, during the Late Cretaceous Period, for those of you who do not know ancient Earth history that's about sixty five million years ago. Those with four legs and two wings, those with two legs and two wings, those with four legs and no wings and those with two wings and no legs."

"How comes Muggle scientist haven't discovered any of these?" asked Hermione.

"Luck mainly, though it also helps that when a dragon's body starts to break down, the hydrogen that they use as fuel and the platinum filled rocks which they eat and acts as a catalyst for their fire mix and cause the body to either burn or explode, even the bones burn."

"So that's how they breath fire." Smiled Hermione "I always wondered."

"That's how the four legged with and without winged varieties breathe fire." He corrected "The two legged and no legged varieties spit out two or three chemicals which ignite when they touch, but all the same, when the body degrades the materials, whether liquids or gas and solid mix and burn the body from the inside out."

"What happened to all the different types of dragons?" asked Buffy.

"The four legged no wings varieties were known as Wyrm's and were huge, the biggest creature to ever walk on the earth, one hundred tons plus, they preferred to live in large caves so any non burned remains are mostly underground or have been eaten by more of their kind, they died out during the KT event..."

"The what?" asked Ron.

"The event that killed the dinosaurs." Replied Hermione "That's the scientific name for it."

As Adam turned to continue Harry heard Ron whisper to Ginny:

"What in Merlin's name are dinosaurs?"

Harry mentally cursed the lack of education at Hogwarts regarding Muggle subjects before Adam continued.

"A smaller sub species survived by becoming aquatic and then went on to become Chinese Dragons before they were wiped out by the two winged four legged species. The two winged no legs varieties were known as the Quetzalcoatl..."

"Wasn't that an Aztec god?"

"Very good Hermione," he replied, much to the pleasure of the beaming brunette "Quetzalcoatl survived until just over a thousand years ago when they're numbers eventually ran out, they could only lay one egg every ten years and they simply ran out of time. They survived just long enough for the early Americans to start regarding them as gods. The last two land varieties; the ones that evolved into modern dragons survived KT by hibernating underground for many years and the wyverns ability to stay un-hatched for millennium and a few adults that also survived in hibernation guarding them allowed their species to survive, which it did until modern dragons wiped out the last known living members of the species leaving only this egg and any others in hibernation somewhere or that remain un-hatched."

"What's he saying?" asked Sapphire, her voice sounded slightly aggravated at being left out of the conversation.

"Oh, sorry, I forgot you can only understand me, this is Adam, and he gave me your egg."

Harry watched as Sapphire looked towards Adam, looking him up and down as if judging him.

"How did he get my egg?"

"He explained that your egg was rescued from a dragon attack by human allies of your kind and that your egg was put into stasis until such time as it was safe for you to hatch."

"What happened to the rest of my kind?"

"They..." he tried nervously "They, didn't survive, the dragons wiped all known wyverns out."

Sapphire's eyes darkened and she lowered her head.

"I am alone then."

"You have me." He corrected "I will not leave you alone."

She looked up at him and went to nuzzle his hand, but jumped back when Octavia jumped out of the back of his hand and hissed at her.

There were several shrieks and cries of alarm from around the room as the spider appeared.

"Stop!" he hissed causing Octavia to stop, though Sapphire continued to growl at the spider.

"I was only trying to protect you Master." She explained, pulling the back part of her body out of his hand and turning to him.

"Fair enough, but please don't attack someone unless you know they mean me harm."

"Yes Master." She bowed before moving off of his hand and standing beside it, opposite Sapphire.

"Don't worry," he spoke to the wyvern, who was hunched over, her head hanging lower than her shoulders, snarling at the spider "This is Octavia; she thought you meant me harm."

"Why was she under your skin?" she demanded.

"She is magical, a gift from the Patriarch of the Acromantulas, she allows me to understand spider speech."

"Very well." She replied cautiously straightening up slightly.

"What on earth is that thing!" cried Ron, who was pressing himself against the wall, seeing a spider come out of his skin had obviously freaked him out greatly.

"She is a gift from Aragog." He explained "She allows me to understand spiders."

"She?"

"Her name is Octavia, don't worry, she wont bite you."

"Please excuse me if I don't take your word for it." Ron replied, his breathing rather laboured, some of the others didn't look much better.

Harry nodded; he could understand why Ron would feel extremely uncomfortable with seeing a spider come out of his skin, he was probably going to have nightmares about this later.

"Octavia, can you go back to my skin, my friend Ron is terrified of spiders."

"Yes Master." She bowed before walking back to his hand and pulling herself back inside.

"That's kinda creepy." Shivered Buffy "Please don't bring that thing near me, it gives me major wiggins."

Several of the younger members of the group gave her strange looks; she definitely said some weird stuff at times, did all American's speak like that?

"Do I want to know what she said?" asked Sapphire.

"Nothing important," he replied "Just something a bit odd is all."

"Can you ask Adam what else he knows about my species?" she asked.

Turning to him he relayed the question.

"I can show her if should would like."

"Occlumency?"

He nodded his reply.

"He says he can show you if you will allow him into your mind."

Sapphire didn't answer for several seconds.

"Do you trust him?"

"Yes." Harry replied instantly.

"Ok then, he can show me."

"She says you can show her."

Adam moved forward and touched a finger to Sapphire's head.

As he did so, both their eyes closed and Sapphire shuddered slightly, presumably from the feeling of having many memories flashing across her mind.

They stayed like that for almost a minute before Adam removed his hand, leaving Sapphire panting, supporting herself heavily on her wing claws.

"They were huge," she breathed "I will be that big one day...and be able to breathe fire."

"How big will you get?" Harry asked.

"I...won't stop," she replied "I will grow by about my length every week for the next few months before slowing down, but I will never stop growing."

"Wow." Harry smiled "Will you tell me more about your species?"

"Only if you tell me about yours." She smiled back.

* * *

AUTHORS NOTE 1: So that everybody knows, I have no idea who it was who did it but someone nominated this story as the best Unfinished Harry Potter Crossover on the 'Twisting The Hellmouth' site,( that's a w w w, then a 'tthfanfic' followed by a dot com for those of you that read this story elsewhere). You have to be registered to the site in order to vote but that does not take more than a minute and no advertisements or emails are sent unless you want them to so you will not even know you have registered afterwards unless you want to continue to use the sight, you can also add my story to a tracking list to email you when I upload a new chapter, so it does not have to be a complete waste of time.

If you agree with this nomination or would just like to support my story please go to the site stated above (I cannot write out the address as several sites don't let you do so in chapters), search for my story or my author name in the search tab (it is always the same), go to chapter one, at the top of which you will see a blue image with the letters 'COA' followed by 'Best Unfinished Crossover (Harry Potter)', click on the image to follow the link, when the page loads click on 'Story Types', followed by 'Best Unfinished Crossover (Harry Potter)' and finally click on my story in the list and submit vote. I would greatly appreciate every vote; I have never been nominated for anything like this before so it would be brilliant to win it. I am asking humbly please vote for me.

And a very special thank you to whoever nominated my story; please let me know who you are?

AUTHORS NOTE 2: As regards the this and the last chapter I will repeat what I said at the end of the chapter before encase anyone missed it. For those that started shouting at the screen, no I did not steal the egg idea or the wyverns name from Eragon for one very important reason. I came up with the idea and everything else you have read about the subject in this and the last chapter long LONG before I ever heard of Eragon or Saphira and although I have since read the books and watched the film the idea is much older than my knowledge of said stories, and I also assure you that although VERY similar the names of the two dragons are complete coincidences, mine is named after her colour and the colour was chosen because it would have looked better than green, red or white and I didn't want it to be a plain boring brown or black, though I have had to add an autocorrect option to Word to stop me writing the wrong name accidentally as my fingers work on automatic and I have written down the wrong name more than once.

AUTHORS NOTE 3: One last thing, if I refer to Sapphire as a dragon although she is a Wyvern that is because in this story I consider that Wyvern is to Dragon as Snake is to Reptile.


	80. CH80 The Equinox Ball

Chapter 80 – The Equinox Ball

Over the course of the next week the main talk around the school was all about Harry and how, not only did he now have an extinct form of dragon living with him but he had somehow managed to get a hold of a large quantity of Acromantulas silk.

No less than twenty five girls tried to throw themselves at him, either trying to seduce him into giving them some of the silk or asking if he could get them some.

They had actually had to go as far as putting over a dozen protective charms around Colette's quarters (where she was making the dresses) to keep the material safe, no less than ten students had been caught trying to sneak into the staff's quarters. The most amusing attempt was made by Pansy Parkinson who was seen running from the area by most of the sixth year, weeping as her new appearance of a big hairy mans body, complete with large stomach and hairy arms and legs, wearing only a short towel that just covered her.

When asked later Colette admitted to being the teacher who added that charm over the doors but only a few of them knew that for certain.

As regards to Sapphire, Adam had come up with a very clever way of keeping her hidden. She, like Octavia, now when not wandering around the school and its grounds, lived under Harry's skin.

A problem was going to develop though because she was growing very rapidly, inside of the week she had, as she said, managed to double in size and although Sapphire had assured him that her growth was going to slow down after a while, within four weeks she would be too big to sit under his skin, she already took up a lot of his back.

When not in lessons, either teaching or learning, Harry and Sapphire spent their time getting to know each other with Fleur joining them when she got the chance. They talked about the Wizarding World and the magical creatures that existed within it, the history of the wyverns (memories that Adam had left Sapphire), The Alliance, Harry's second identity and his ability to become a dragon (something that Sapphire found fascinating, especially the thought that although he dwarfed her now, she would one day dwarf him) and the war that was looming.

After explaining his and Voldemort's history Sapphire immediately volunteered to help by signing The Alliance contract, Harry imagined what the battle field would be like if there was a wyvern flying around, firing jets of flame at the enemy. The thought also gave him a good idea that he would have to bring up when The Alliance Court next met.

Harry had wondered about what Professor Dumbledore would think of keeping a Wyvern on the grounds but he was surprisingly accepting, explaining that although she had the capability to be a dangerous creature, as she was sentient she could take reasonability for her actions and she would only be forced to leave if she became a threat to the school or its residence.

Hagrid, of course, had been fascinated by Sapphire, and even more so when he learned that she was sentient. He was very eager learn about what Adam had told her about her kind and she had spent much time with him since her hatching, Hagrid living near the forest meant there were always plenty of mice and rats around for her to eat.

Apparently she had got quiet good at surprise attacks; she used her wings, although her muscles were not yet strong enough to let her fly they were strong enough to let her glide and drop down right on top of her prey. It was at this time that Harry noticed a pair of stretchy areas of skin (he believe called winglets) behind her head and at the end of her tail. When watching her glide he had seen that they opened up like four miniature wings to support the head and tail during a glide, these were especially useful now as she was only forty centimetres in length.

Harry had worried about where she would stay when she got bigger and what she would eat but those were problems for later as tonight she was staying with Hagrid as that evening was the day of the Equinox Ball.

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:23__rd__September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Dumbledore's Office_

_Time:Early Evening_

The group assembling in the Headmaster's Office was extremely well dressed.

The Headmaster of course was dressed in extremely colourful and flamboyant dress robes complete with wizards hat. McGonagall was wearing much more restrained but equally as beautiful formal dress robes.

Ron was wearing his newer of his two sets of dress robes as well as a cloak that had come with the robes that Harry had given him, like the ones that the Durmstrang students had been wearing at the Yule Ball two years earlier that tied around one shoulder and hung on the other; this set was red with gold highlights that matched Hermione's red Acromantulas silk dress.

Neville was dressed similarly to Ron except his cloak was a deep blue to match Luna's silk dress and highlighted in gold.

Harry was garbed in a similar outfit to both the other male students except his robes were black with silver highlights.

Ginny's and Buffy's dresses were both strapless and red and pink respectively and finally Colette and Fleur's were both silver with the two straps meeting behind their necks.

None of the Acromantulas silk dresses were overly flamboyant and were all relatively simple and tight fitting with the main difference being the type (if present) of the shoulder straps and how low cut the dresses were, those with straps were rather low cut, something that Ron was definitely appreciating as it was showing him that Hermione had developed some rather pleasant curves...especially around the chest region.

And finally Adam was dressed in something that might be seen in an old fashioned Muggle historical drama. A strange sort of black dress shirt that had buckles on both sides which got progressively closer together the further down the shirt they went, one side Harry guessed were purely decorative. Along with the shirt there was a pair of black trousers with a sword belt around it, complete with a rapier hanging from it. Over his shoulders was a normal cloak, similar to the one that Malfoy Senior often wore. In the Muggle world everyone would have thought him out of date but in the Wizarding World his attire looked perfectly normal.

Fleur, Colette, Buffy and Luna were looking excited, Neville, Ginny and Harry were looking nervous, Ron and Hermione were looking awkward at attending together and finally Adam, Dumbledore and McGonagall were wearing amused expressions at the looks on everyone else's faces. The only other people in the room were those other student members of the Wizengamot that were present, those female members and the partner of the male members were all looking jealously at all those wearing the Acromantulas silk, proving that elaborate designs for the dresses were really not needed.

"Are we ready?" asked Dumbledore.

After several nods and confirmations a portkey was held out and everyone took a hold.

* * *

They arrived outside a large mansion with a long set of steps that led up to the doors, there were several Auror guards dressed in their best robes around the doors and at regular positions around them, there were several other well dressed people getting out of carriages or climbing up the steps.

"Welcome to the Minister of Magic's weekend residence." Smiled Dumbledore "Shall we make our entrance?"

"We shall." Smiled Harry as the group paired up, somewhat awkwardly for Ron and Hermione.

Walking up the long staircase they followed the red carpet through the main doors, down a long hall to a doorway that led into a massive ballroom.

On the door was a Ministry Official taking invitations and announcing everyone as they entered.

Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall stepped up first; neither had brought partners and were content to go solo.

"Lord Albus Dumbledore, Order of Merlin First Class, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards and Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!" hollered the doorman as he was handed Dumbledore's invite, followed by Professor McGonagall's "Baroness Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"

Next Colette and Adam stepped up.

"Lady Colette Fontaine and Master Adam Berio-Megil...Megil..."

Harry saw Adam whisper in the ear of the embarrassed doorman.

"Thank you," he whispered back "Megiltura!"

Next came Neville and Luna.

"Baron Neville Longbottom and Miss Luna Lovegood!"

And lastly it was their turn; stepping up to the doorman they saw his eyes bulge at the names on the invites (the number of guests changed to display the names of those attending just before they left).

"Thane Harry James Potter, Viscount of the House of Gryffindor and Baron of the House of Black, Lady Fleur Delacour, daughter of Comte Dimitri Delacour of France, Master Ronald Weasley, Miss Hermione Granger, Miss Ginevra Weasley and Miss Buffy Summers."

By the time the entire list of names had been read out almost the entire hall was looking in their direction, no one was concerned with the other Hogwarts students entering behind them as everyone was either looking at Dumbledore, himself and Fleur, Colette and Adam, Ron and Hermione or Buffy and Ginny who were walking arm in arm as they had been for most of the journey, it was rather a good pairing as the growing form of Ginny was the closest in height to the short form of Buffy, the looks ranged from curious, to fascinated, interested to utterly furious.

Fudge belonged to the furious group; he was having a heated argument with one of his officials who was wishing he had a different job.

As the group moved down the large set of stairs that they had to walk down to enter the room, Dumbledore turned to them and smiled at them.

"Try not to stir things up too much."

"Oh, we will definitely try not to stir things up TOO much." Grinned Colette as she and Adam continued past Dumbledore down onto the dance floor.

As the group dissipated into the crowd, Harry smiled at Fleur.

"Shall we?"

"We shall." She replied.

* * *

Harry and Fleur spent the first few minutes quietly wandering around the hall while people tried to introduce themselves to them, either because of who they were or because of the silk making up Fleur's dress, Harry literally did see women (and several businessmen) salivating at the sight of the dress, some of the people who introduced themselves looked so eager to get their hands on the dress that Harry and Fleur started counting their fingers after each hand shake encase they took any to try to trade them back to them in exchange for the silk. Two had already tried to tread on the dress in the hope of ripping some off.

They got their first break when they saw a space that allowed them to access the dance floor and escape from the approaching form of another quick fingered businessman.

Moving onto the ballroom floor they weaved their way amongst the couples until they were right in the middle of the floor, as they danced around they got their first chance to actually look at the room they were in. It was a vast ballroom with an extremely high ceiling and a length and width that would have taken several minutes of uninterrupted walking to get from one end to the other, the walls were almost entirely filled with plain glass windows that stretched up to the ceiling. The room was decorated in gold's and other bright colours, a massive mural covered the ceiling depicting important events in Wizarding history and a mosaic stretched the length of the floor, they must have taken months and months to make.

As the song came to an end they left the ring of dancers, making their exit on the other side of the dance floor. They quickly moved through the crowd until they reached a selection of comfortable sofas and other assorted seating along the edge of the room.

"Why do I get the feeling that tonight is going to be more about dodging people than about actually enjoying the evening?" Sighed Harry as they seated themselves in a secluded corner.

"Probably because it will be." Answered a familiar voice.

"Amelia." Harry smiled, standing and turning towards the Director as she approached.

"Harry, a pleasure to see you again."

"Likewise. Allow me introduce my girlfriend Fleur Delacour."

"Director Bones." Fleur greeted, extending her hand

"Lady Delacour," she returned, taking the offered hand "Call me Amelia."

"Only if you call me Fleur." She smiled back, gesturing to the chair beside them.

"There are many rumours flying about regarding you two." commented Amelia as she seated herself "Most think you are an item but most believe that either you have enthralled Harry or that he is using his fame and money to get you."

"Neither is true." Fleur replied firmly "My family is already very wealthy and Arry is impervious to Veela Powers."

"Really?" asked Amelia "Impressive."

"It's just like Occlumency." He replied "You just need to tweak it a bit."

"None the less, to be that good at Occlumency at such a young age is most impressive."

"I had good teachers."

"Knowing you Harry, I do not think I would be surprised if Merlin himself taught you." She smiled, before her face turned slightly more formal "So that you are aware, the Order of Merlin's will be awarded later this evening."

"Order of Merlin's?" asked Fleur "What Order of Merlin's?"

"Those for all the students at the DOM as well as Cedric Diggory at the insistence of Harry." Explained Amelia, while Harry tried to push himself back into a corner as the subject was discussed "Harry was going to refuse his award if Cedric did not receive one as well."

"Arry," said Fleur turning to him "Why did you not tell me about this?"

"I didn't want to make it look like I was boasting or anything." He shrugged.

"Oh Arry." She sighed "I know you better than that; at least this explains that area of your mind I could not see."

"So you are mated then?" asked Amelia, her eyes showed a look an awful lot like Dumbledore's twinkle.

Realising what she had just done, Fleur groaned lightly and cursed in French under her breath, making Amelia's smile grow.

"I will take that as a yes then, do not worry I will not tell anyone." She chuckled "But it does explain the great change in your personality since I first saw you at the trial. Make sure you take care of him, Fleur."

"I fully intend to." She smiled back.

"Harry?" Hermione's voice asked as she, Ron, Ginny and Buffy approached them "What have you done?"

"What do you mean?" he asked back.

"I mean what have you done?" she asked again, both her hands would have been on her hips if one had not been looped through Ron's arm "No less than twenty people have come up to Ron, Ginny and myself since we have been here and congratulated us, and notably they were all members of the Wizengamot, and as you joined the Wizengamot last weekend it means you are probably involved. So what have you done?"

"Hermione," he said, feigning innocence so badly that anyone would know he was acting "You wound me. You believe that just because I was at the meeting that I am responsible for you all receiving the Order of Merlin."

"WHAT!!!" exclaimed Ron and Ginny making Buffy jump out of her skin and making several people look at them.

"You are all, along with Harry, Baron Longbottom and Miss Lovegood receiving the Order of Merlin for your actions over the last six years." Explained Amelia, none of the others seemed to notice her until she spoke "It was just to be the six of you at the Ministry but Harry insisted that Cedric Diggory receive one as well."

"Harry, how did...how did...how...Just how?" Ron stuttered.

"It actually was not me." Replied Harry "You can thank Amos Diggory, he was the one who proposed it and before Neville and I could refuse McGonagall, your father and Moody had all stepped up and agreed to the proposal, so I did the only thing I could do to make sure that the family of the real hero of the Triwizard Tournament got something as well."

Both the Weasley's still seemed rather shocked, though Buffy was still looking a bit confused.

"What is this Merlin Order thingamajig? Some sort of award?"

"The Order of Merlin, First, Second and Third Class are the three highest awards that any Witch or Wizard can achieve." Explained Amelia "They are awarded for cases of extreme bravery, for heroic acts, for sacrificing oneself for others and for great other contributions to Wizarding society. Amelia Bones, Director of Magical Law Enforcement."

"Buffy Summers?" replied Buffy, extending her hand and shaking Amelia's firmly "Hogwarts MD Professor."

"Pleasure."

"Likewise." Returned Buffy "So how many get this Order thingy?"

"Not many, the only person you probably know who has one is Dumbledore for his defeat of the Dark Lord Grindelwald in 1945."

"Eermione?" came Fleur's voice, drawing the attention of everyone else "Eermione?"

She waved her hand in front of the girls face but it remained as blank as it had been since they were told they were to receive the Order of Merlin.

"Mione?" asked Ron "Mione!"

"Hermione for heaven sake start breathing again." Commanded Harry "We don't want you passing out on us."

"Order...of...Mmm..." She tried, her face still totally blank "Mmm...Mmeerr...Mmeerr."

"Merlin." Supplied Harry "Yes Hermione, you are getting one."

"Mr Weasley," chuckled Amelia "You had better get Miss Granger a drink, a strong one, I don't think she will be fully functional again until she has had one."

* * *

Harry and Fleur spent the next couple of hours, after Hermione's recovered from the shock, quietly meeting and talking with the parties other residents.

Either Dumbledore, McGonagall, Amelia, Andromeda (who they met up with shortly after meeting Amelia) or Colette and her partner were usually somewhere nearby to intercept any incoming Ministry Official or other person who wanted to talk to them for any other reason than simply enjoying the party. Harry had never known before that night just how powerful a stare Professor McGonagall could put on, half of the people she intercepted turned around at the mere look on her face.

Amos Diggory and his wife also seemed to be nearby a lot of the time, they appeared to have taken it upon themselves to make sure that Harry's evening was as peaceful as possible, something that Harry and Fleur were very glad about.

"Harry." A familiar voice called from a short distance away.

"Mr Weasley," Harry returned, turning to look at the man and his wife, both dressed in expensive looking clothes, though being Mr Weasley, his were not quite as conventional as everyone else's. They were even more flamboyant than Dumbledore's, and likewise Mrs Weasley dress was also slightly eccentrically coloured "Mrs Weasley."

"Harry, I wish to apologize for what I said at the will reading," said Mrs Weasley "You were right, I did not know the facts and..."

"Mrs Weasley," interrupted Harry "Don't worry about it, you're right, you didn't know all the facts, but now you do. Let's not mention it again."

Mrs Weasley's appeared shocked for a moment before her face spread into a wide smile and she pulled him into a tight hug.

"Thank you Harry." She sobbed "Thank you."

"Ah, Harry." A voice called across the ballroom.

"Oh ffff….fudge." Harry swore as he and Mrs Weasley separated.

"Literally." Joked Fleur.

"Want us to try to get rid of him Harry?" asked Arthur.

"No," Harry smiled, as he sent his orbiting bodyguards, who at this time were the Diggory's, a subtle hand signal to allow Fudge to reach him "I am going to enjoy this."

"As you wish Harry," smiled Arthur as Molly took his hand and began to walk away "Try not to tease him too much."

Harry sent them a wink just before Fudge arrived.

"Harry my boy," greeted the Minister, wearing that ghastly smile he usually wore when he was sure he was in control of a situation, following close behind him was a small man wearing a set of robes which would not have looked out of place on a Dwarf, and a rather uncomfortable expression on his face "How have you been?"

"Well, thank you Minister, yourself?"

"Not bad Harry, not bad at all."

"I believe you know my date. Lady Delacour."

An expression of annoyance flashed across the Ministers face before he resumed his ghastly smile.

"Of course, how are you Miss Delacour?"

"Well, thank you Mr Fudge." She replied, deliberately leaving off his title as he did hers, making that annoyed expression appear again briefly.

"Miss Delacour, would you be so kind as to let me talk to Harry in private."

"I have no secrets from Fleur." Harry added quickly.

Fudge's face flashed with anger again for a moment before he once again assumed his horrible mask.

"Very well Harry. It has come to the attention of the Ministry that you have in your possession a dangerous creature."

"Dangerous creature?...Oh, my wyvern you mean."

"Precisely." Smiled Fudge "The Ministry will have to ask you to give up this creature; it is far too dangerous to be allowed to remain around students."

"How so?"

"A fire breathing dragon is very dangerous Harry," replied the Minister in a tone that made him seem like he was talking to a child, trying to explain why they weren't allowed a wand yet "There is a reason all dragons are rated dangerous five 'X' creatures, they are too dangerous to be kept domestically."

"But Sapphire isn't a true dragon, same ancestry yes, but she is not a dragon," replied Harry "She's a wyvern."

"Yes, but Harry..."

"And there is no mention of wyvern's in the dangerous creatures list as the species was believed extinct by the time it was published; thusly you cannot call her a five 'X' creature without proof that she is dangerous, proof which you do not have."

"But you see Harry..."

"The proper procedure for this sort of situation is for the creature to be monitored and then judged how dangerous it is," explained Hermione as she and Ron walked into the scene "In the meantime Minister; you have no legal right to try to take Sapphire from Harry or Hogwarts without the Headmaster's permission."

"A permission you do not have." Added Dumbledore as he came up behind the Minister, making him and his official jump "I have seen nothing to indicate that the wyvern known as Sapphire is in anyway dangerous to the students or any of the other inhabitants of the school or grounds...not counting the rats."

"Thank you Headmaster." Smiled Hermione before turning back to the Minister "As I was saying, you have no evidence that Sapphire is dangerous and as such you have no legal right to try to remove Sapphire from the school."

"Thanks Hermione." Smiled Harry before the pair turned back to the Minister.

Fudge was shaking in anger but managed to compose himself long enough to send a glare at Hermione that clearly said that she would pay for siding against him, before turning and striding off, his official trailing behind him.

"I think that's four nil to us now." Smiled Harry "Why does he always think that we are on good terms whenever we meet?"

"And when will he realize that he cannot win against you?" Asked Ron.

"Not soon enough." Replied Hermione. "Now let's get back to enjoying the evening."

* * *

The remainder of the evening was mostly spent dancing; the girls resurrected their game of 'Pass the Potter', except now it was pass the Potter, Weasley, Longbottom and Guardian. It seemed only fair as two of the ladies did not have partners with them.

Everything seemed to be going well for Harry until Buffy passed him to Ginny for the second time.

It started just like all his other dances, Harry holding her by her hand and waist as he should, but the song being a slow waltz made the pair move closer, Ginny putting her hands around his neck and him looping his around her waist, still perfectly innocent, just like all the other couples in their group were dancing.

But then it happened.

Ginny sighed and leaned her head against his chest.

Harry was slightly shocked by it, but thought nothing of it until one of the hands on his shoulders started to play with the ends of his hair.

His eyes widened but he dared not say anything, he tried to pull away but his body didn't seem to want to cooperate, as if the message where being sent but they were not being picked up by his body. He tried to think of something else he could do but his mind seemed to be filled with fog.

He glanced around to see if there was anyone who could help him escape, he locked eyes with Colette who was currently standing off the dance floor, she also seemed to have noticed Ginny's behaviour and looked like she was trying hard to work out if she should be smirking at his plight, angry at Ginny for doing whatever it was she was doing or just shrugging it off as she knew as he did that the mating prevented anything from happening.

But in that case, why did Ginny standing there pressed against him feel so right.

* * *

Fleur was experiencing this odd feeling, as if someone or something else was present in the link between her and her mate, like being in a room full of mist, she knew Harry was there but the mist was disrupting her sense of direction so that she could not figure out exactly where, not to mention the fact that the mist should not have been there in the first place.

"Are you alright Fleur?" asked Neville, her current dance partner, he had obviously noticed how distracted she seemed.

"I.. ..I don't know."

* * *

Ginny was in heaven, she had her head on the chest of the man she cared for and he was holding her while they swayed to music.

Her mind seemed to be filled with mist, blocking out everything but Harry and herself.

She forgot that they were at the ball, she forgot that he was with Fleur and she forgot all about that odd stirring she felt whenever she saw Draco Malfoy.

She sighed again and slowly opened her eyes.

Looking at his chest she saw the necklace she had given him, its outline and the red glow emanating from its eyes were visible through his shirt.

As soon as she saw it everything came flooding back and she jumped back from Harry.

"I...I...I need to visit the bathroom." She said quickly before turning and moving away at speed, as she left the eyes of the necklace faded and Harry and Fleur's minds began to clear.

* * *

As soon as she got into the ladies room she almost ran into the nearest cubical and slammed the door, locking it behind her.

Leaning against the door she took her head in her hands.

She felt like tearing her hair out, what was she doing.

She was over Harry...she was.

But in that case why had she bought that necklace for him, there had been plenty of others both magical and ordinary, but she got him that one, the one with the special charm on it.

It was wrong

It was done

She was interfering with his happiness

What about her happiness.

She didn't feel for Harry any more, he was like a brother to her.

A brother she wanted to snog senseless.

She had the beginning if feelings for Draco.

She had full on feelings for Harry.

"SHUT UP. SHUT UP. SHUT UP!!!!!!!!"

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:24__th__September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Disused Classroom_

_Time:Early Morning_

Early the next morning in a long disused classroom in one of the quieter corridors of Hogwarts, five people sat around a pentagon drawn within a chalk circle.

There was a candle at every point where two or more of the lines met, all were burning just enough to illuminate the lower halves of the faces of each of the people, their black cloaks and hoods hid their eyes and the rest of their features.

As one, each extended their left hand over the bowl that was situated at the centre of the pentagon, allowing the fresh cuts that they had just made in them to drip into it, making a small pool of blood appear where the five trickles of blood met at its centre.

One of them picked up a series of ingredients and added them to the bowl before carefully picking up a couple of light hairs and a phoenix core wand lying to the side.

Dropping the hairs into the bowl the figure pointed the wand at it and waited for the other four to grip the wand around her hand before they all whispered.

"Morsmordre!"

There was deadly silence as magic was sucked into the bowl, before turning around and blasting back outwards, briefly filling the room with green light, illuminating the cloaked figure with a silver hand standing in the corner.

The five slumped forward panting at the energy drain before the obvious leader of the five pulled up their left sleeve to reveal a female arm and the mark upon it.

The woman smiled before turning to the figure in the corner and holding out the wand for him to take.

"It is done."

"Our master will be pleased." Replied the figure, taking and pocketing the wand "You will be rewarded for your loyalty. For now, I have my own mission to complete."

Nothing else was said as the figure transformed and disappeared from sight.

* * *

_HARRY POTTER & OTHER HOGWARTS STUDENTS RECEIVES ORDER OF MERLIN_

_By Luna Lovegood_

_Last night at the Equinox Ball, the most prominent event in the Wizarding calendar, the guests were in for quiet the surprise, as is usual Albus Dumbledore journeyed down from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry with any students who were also to attend, though this year he brought quiet the crowd with him._

_Also as per usual Minerva McGonagall, Hogwarts Deputy Headmistress came too but along with them came Baron Neville Longbottom, son of Frank and Alice Longbottom who were tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange during the last war with Voldemort and hero of the Department Of Mysteries accompanied by Miss Luna Lovegood, the author of this article, daughter of the Editor of the Quibbler and also present at the DOM, Professor Adam Berio-Megiltura, one of Hogwarts new Muggle Defence Professors and still a mystery as regards his origins, as the guest to Professor Colette Fontaine teacher of Alternative Magic at Hogwarts daughter of Councillor Fontaine of the French Council of Power._

_I think our readers can agree that although these guests were unusual for the ball, there is nothing particularly odd about them, but the best is yet to come._

_Next in the list was Lord Potter-Gryffindor-Black, the famous Harry Potter himself, holder of the titles of Viscount Gryffindor, Thane Potter, Baron Black and Sir Evan's, probably the most famous living wizard alive due to his numerous triumphs over the so called 'Dark Lord' Voldemort._

_Lord Gryffindor was accompanied by the beautiful Lady Fleur Delacour, History of Magical Creatures Professor at Hogwarts and daughter of the eminent Comte Delacour, one of the leading figures in the French Council of Power, confirming the rumours that the two are in a relationship with each other that probably started during Miss Delacour's rescuing of Mr Potter during the summer, and encase anyone is thinking she has him under the Imperious Curse or is controlling him using Veela Power, the students of both Hogwarts and Beauxbatons can confirm that he is impervious to both forms of mental control._

_And lastly due to a complication in the way that the invitations are set up, Harry Potter and Fleur Delacour between them were legally able to bring four guests._

_Mr Ronald Weasley and Miss Hermione Granger, best friends of Lord Harry Potter and participants in the battle at the Department of Mysteries, Miss Ginevra Weasley, sister of Ronald Weasley, another close friend of Lord Potter and another participant of the battle at the Department of Mysteries and finally Professor Buffy Summers, the American who has assumed the other role of Muggle Defence Professor at Hogwarts and who has become good friends with Lord Potter and his friends._

_And if the unusual guests were not enough, Miss Lovegood, Miss Fontaine, Lady Delacour, Miss Granger, Miss Weasley and Miss Summers were all in dresses made out of, if you can believe it, ACROMANTULAS SILK._

_Yes readers you read correctly, Acromantulas Silk, one of the most valued fabrics in the entire Wizarding World. The vast quantity of silk was acquired by Lord Potter from the Acromantulas and was turned into dresses by Professor Fontaine._

_Be warned readers, the giant spiders do not give their silk away, they apparently owed Lord Potter a favour which was the sole reason that they did not kill him on site for entering their hollow, since the silk was first seen around Hogwarts several students have tried to acquire silk from them and only swift action by Hogwarts Keeper of Keys and Grounds Rubeus Hagrid saved their lives, NO ONE should attempt to acquire Acromantulas Silk unless they have a prior relationship with the spiders in question._

_All six of the ladies were the centre of attention and many jealous looks were sent their way as they moved around the ballroom._

_At the end of the evening the biggest surprise of all was the awarding of The Order of Merlin Third Class to Miss Luna Lovegood, Baron Neville Longbottom and posthumously to Cedric Diggory, The Order of Merlin Second Class to Miss Hermione Granger, Miss Ginevra Weasley and Mr Ronald Weasley and finally the awarding of The Order of Merlin First Class to Lord Harry Potter for their efforts in fighting Voldemort and his supporters during their lifetimes._

_Together the six of them make up the six youngest receivers of the award ever. Beating the previous youngest receiver back in..._

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:24__th__September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Gryffindor Common Room – Sixth Year Girls Dormitory_

_Time:Early Morning_

In the Sixth Year Girls Dormitories in Gryffindor Tower, a bushy haired brunette stretched as she slowly awoke, the memories of the previous evening bringing a smile back to her face.

She had danced around with Ron for most of the evening; it was as good as she dreamed it would be, he had held her in his arms and they had danced and danced and danced. Her head lying on his chest, his warm arms holding her close, his breath on her neck as he smelled her hair.

She had been in heaven; she had never wanted the evening to end.

And then to top it all off, when those four ancient looking wizards had joined Professor Dumbledore on those steps and had called them each up one by one to join the elite ranks of those to hold the Order of Merlin, she thought her life could never get any better.

Slowly opening her eyes, she looked over towards the chair beside her bed where her silk dress laid, the purple and silver sash marking her out as an OOMSC holder and the silver medal itself on its purple and white ribbon laying in its open box beside it.

When she had got back the night before almost every Gryffindor female was waiting for Ginny and herself in their rooms, they spent over an hour interrogating them about the evening while their dresses, sashes and medals were passed around, when Hermione had finally managed to get them all out of her room, she went to bed and fell asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow.

The only odd thing about the entire evening had been the slightly distracted looks on the faces that Harry, Fleur, Colette and Ginny had developed shortly before they had been awarded their medals.

Sitting up in bed she gave a satisfied stretch before reaching for her dressing gown, slipping out of bed and making her way towards the girl's bathroom.

Most of the other girls seemed to be stirring as well so Hermione would have to be quick if she wanted the bathroom to herself. She passed a couple of younger girls in the corridor; none looked particularly awake as they rubbed the long sleeves of their pyjamas against their eyes.

Pushing the door open, Hermione moved straight to the sink to wash the nights grime away.

Rolling her dressing gowns sleeves up she turned on the tap and splashed some water on her face.

Closing her eyes she took a breath before opening her eyes and looking at herself in the mirror.

Seeing what she thought was a bit of dirt on her left arm just under her rolled up sleeve, she made an annoyed sound before shaking the water of her hands and began to pull her sleeve back further.

Just as she was about to pick up the soap she looked at the mark more closely, before jumping back in panic.

There on her arm, was the last thing she expected to see.

The Dark Mark.

* * *

AUTHORS NOTE 1: The original idea for the Equinox Ball idea came from Cry on FFA, specifically her story 'Scion of Gryffindor' (a very good read). I have her permission to use the idea so thank you Cry for letting me use it, and if you have not read the above story (a Harry/Tonks pairing), I highly recommend that you do. 


	81. CH81 A School Of Death Eaters

Chapter 81 – A School Of Death Eaters

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:24__th__September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Gryffindor Common Room – Sixth Year Girls Dormitory_

_Time:Early Morning_

There on her arm, was the last thing she expected to see.

The Dark Mark.

She stood stock still for almost twenty seconds before she was startled out of her frozen state by a gasp from the doorway.

She turned to see Lavender bringing her wand to bear upon her.

"Hermione, how...How could you..."

"Lavender," she replied, half panicked as she realised Lavender's line of thought "It's not what you think."

"I think you have The Dark Mark on your arm." Lavender replied, her voice sounded half way between anger and disbelief "I drew my own conclusions from there...Death Eater."

"NO!!" she shouted back, she could feel tears beginning to run down her face "I'm not a Death Eater...I'm not."

"Then explain that...that THING on your arm."

She never got the chance to answer as another scream and the sound of cursing came from the dormitories, causing Lavender to spin her around towards the direction of the sounds.

Taking her chance, Hermione flicked her wand out of the invisible wand holster around her arm that she had got for her birthday (she had taken to wearing it at all times) and fired a disarmer at Lavender, sending her wand flying into her other hand.

"You can't do anything to me traitor," sneered Lavender "You won't get away with this."

"I AM NOT A DEATH EATER!!" screamed Hermione, charging at the unarmed girl and pressing both wands to her throat, before sobbing out "I'm not."

She never got the chance to say more as a sobbing third year ran into the room.

"Miss Granger, help, they're after me." She cried, running around them to cower behind Hermione as two more third years came in, wands drawn.

"Get her, get her, she a Death Eater." they called aiming their wands "She's got the mark."

"Put those down and wait!" ordered Hermione in her most commanding voice, causing the pair to stop in their tracks, before she turned to Lavender "Do you really think that I, a 'Mud-Blood' who is best friends with Harry Potter would become, of all things a Death Eater. And what are the chances that two female Gryffindor Death Eaters in different years would be discovered by accident in different places on the same day."

Lavender obviously saw the sense in the statement as she stopped pressing herself against the wall and just leaned against it puzzled.

Turning to the terrified girl Hermione knelt down beside her.

"Let me see." She said to the quietly sobbing girl.

The third year reluctantly rolled up her sleeve and looked away in shame.

On her arm was the same mark as on Hermione's own.

"I promise Miss Granger, I didn't, I..."

"Shhh, it will be ok, the same has happened to me." She explained, showing her own, before turning to the other girls "Roll up your sleeves."

The other third years looked at each other worriedly, having seen the mark on Hermione's arm.

"Do it." Ordered Lavender as she rolled up her own sleeve to reveal the mark there as well.

The third year's arms also bore the mark, much to their panic.

"What in Merlin's name is going on?" Exclaimed Lavender, as more sounds of screaming and spells emanated from the corridor.

"Go to the Common Room and stay there." Ordered Hermione as she and Lavender headed for the exit "Do not curse each other unless you want to answer to me!"

As they moved out into the corridor their eyes were met with utter chaos, several students were unconscious or immobilized on the floor, the effects of various curses upon them (including, Hermione noticed, the seventh and fifth year girls prefects), some were pressed against the walls while others pointed wands at them, still more were looking, rubbing or screaming at the marks on their arms and finally there were half a dozen engaged in a fire fight, trying to curse each other out of existence.

Hermione raised her wand to her throat.

"Sonorous. SILENCE!!!!!!"

Everyone in the corridor froze, many clutched at their ears at the volume of her voice.

"NOW, EVERYONE JUST CALM DOWN. WE ALL HAVE THE MARK AND WE DON'T KNOW HOW, SO STOP PANICKING. GO DOWN TO THE COMMON ROOMS; REVIVE THOSE WHO ARE UNCONCIOUS, IF YOU CAN TREAT THOSE WHO ARE INJURED AND WAIT WHILE I GO AND SEE IF THE BOYS ARE ALSO AFFECTED. I WILL THEN GO TO SEE PROFESSOR MCGONAGALL AND FIND OUT WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO US. NO ONE IS TO LEAVE THE COMMON ROOM WHILE I AM GONE...MOVE!!!!"

She doubted half of them had ever moved faster than they did after her little speech, muttering the counter charm she turned back to her dorm mate.

"Lavender, get those three in the bathroom down to the Common Room and make sure they stay there."

"Yes Hermione." She nodded as she moved towards the stairs "Hermione?"

"Yes Lavender?" sighed Hermione, turning to her.

"I...I'm sorry I accused you of being a Death Eater, of all the people to suspect you are probably the last on the list of possible traitors."

"You couldn't have known Lavender, and it did look fairly conclusive, I would probably have thought the same."

Lavender smiled as she turned and headed down the flight of stairs into an already rather full Common Room as the boys were also heading down their stairs in a similar state to the girls. She could see Ron and Neville as they talked rapidly to one another.

As she moved over to them they turned to face her.

"You too?" asked Ron pulling up his sleeve to reveal the mark.

"Yes." She nodded showing her own.

"What in Merlin's name is going on?"

"I don't know, I was just coming up to see you before going to talk to McGonagall."

"Let's go then." Nodded Ron.

"We'll stay and keep everyone calm." Called Ginny moving to stand near Neville as the pair opened the portal and walked out.

The duo quickly made their way towards the Staff quarters as they approached the section of wall that Harry had shown them led to his new room.

As they reached the wall, Ron paused and turned to Hermione.

"Errr...how do we get in? Prefects don't have access."

Not answering him, Hermione simply drew her wand and cast what appeared to be a Message Patronus through the door.

"I got Tonks to show me the incantation during the summer." She explained just as the door opened to reveal a yawning Tonks.

"Morning all, I saw the message spell pass me, what's up?"

The pair pulled their sleeves up revealing the marks, which in hindsight was probably not the best thing to do.

In less than a second both of them were pressed up against the opposite wall, Tonks hand around Hermione's throat and her wand at Ron's.

"Traitor's." she snarled, all her previous exhaustion appeared to be gone.

"Wait...No, no."

"We're not Death Eaters."

"Everyone has one."

"All Gryffindor Tower."

"That's why we came to see Professor McGonagall."

Luckily the Professor in question chose that moment to appear, followed immediately by a hastily dressed Harry.

"Yes Miss Granger, what is the...Tonks, what in Merlin's name are you doing?"

"Tonks get your hands of my friends!!" shouted Harry drawing his wand and pointing it at the back of her head.

"They're Death Eaters, they have his mark." She snarled, pressing harder against Ron's throat while holding up Hermione's arm so they could see.

"Guys," gasped Harry as he saw it, his wand falling from his hand as he stumbled back into the wall "What...what the..."

"NO!" Hermione cried out, tears returning to her eyes at the thought that Harry might think her capable of this of all things "Everyone in the tower woke up with one."

"Neville, Dean, Seamus, Colin, Dennis, Ginny, everyone!!" Added Ron "That's why we came to see you."

"It's not just Gryffindor Professor's," called Luna as she ran around the corner pulling up her own sleeve "The seventh year Prefect sent me to get our Head of House, all Ravenclaw is like it as well."

"And not just the Students." Came Snape's voice from the corridor of the Staff Quarters, he had his sleeve rolled up; several other Professor's could be seen emerging from their quarters behind him "Release them Nymphadora, they are telling the truth."

"How do you know Severus, you already...My word!" exclaimed McGonagall as she spotted Snape's arm.

On his arm, overlaid over his existing Dark Mark was another image of the snake and skull.

"I would be willing to bet Minerva," added Snape "That you have one to, as well as the rest of the staff."

"You are correct Severus." Said Dumbledore, announcing the appearance of Adam and himself "We bumped into prefects from both the remaining houses saying the same, all the students and Professors are affected, even me."

"Oh thank god." Sighed Harry pulling both his friends into tight hugs "I'm sorry I even considered the possibility. Can you ever forgive me?"

"Of course Harry."

"Sure thing mate."

"Arry!" exclaimed Fleur as she came running down the corridor, her eyes full of worry "I...I…."

"Have the Dark Mark," finished Adam "Don't worry Fleur, everyone in the castle has one."

"Hey guys, does anyone know where this strange do-hickey on my arm came from." Called Buffy as she wandered out of her room in her pyjamas, still half asleep.

Looking up she saw the large group.

"Did I miss something?"

* * *

It took less than an hour for the Professor's to work out that the mark was thankfully not permanent. By comparing the magical signatures of Snape's real mark and the other marks they were able to deduce that although the same curse had been used to make them, it was not cast by anyone anywhere near the same level of power or on everyone individually.

They deduced that it was probably a single spell cast on the entire school, as was proved when people noticed that all the native Hogwarts Post Owls also bore the mark, as did all the pets and other living creatures.

It was discovered that a very powerful Finite would remove the mark; only Dumbledore, Adam, McGonagall and Harry (much to the surprise of most of the others) were powerful enough to cast the spell on their own, but the other Professors could cast it if they worked it in pairs.

Fleur probably could have cast the spell as well because of her magical link to Harry but of course not many people knew that they were mated and they were not keen to reveal it to the world yet.

At that moment in time all the students were lined up in front of individual or pairs of teachers as the spells were cancelled.

* * *

Draco Malfoy was currently standing behind a pair of seventh year Slytherin's as they waited for Professor Berio to remove the marks from their arms.

When he had woken up and had seen the mark he had almost had a heart attack, not that he would ever tell anyone that, he thought that it was a message from the Dark Lord that he could not escape him, he had been unbelievably relieved when everyone else noticed that they had them as well.

"Finite. Next." Called Professor Berio as he gestured Draco forward.

Pulling his sleeve up he held it out for the Professor to see.

As he had done many times before the Professor extended his hand over the mark on his arm.

"Finite."

As with every other student so far, the Professors palm and staff in his other hand started to glow white, the light from his hand extended around Draco's arm before slowly to reveal his mark free ar...

The mark was still there.

For the first time since he had woken up, Draco was worried and from the look on the Professor's face, so was he.

"Act normal Mr Malfoy," the Professor whispered as he pushed him out of the way so that the next student could be treated "Cover that up and go and wait in the Headmasters Office, we will be there soon."

Snapping out of his shocked state, he donned his usual mask and tried to wander out of the hall without looking at all out of character, but he was sure that at least the person behind him in the line must have seen.

As he walked through the corridors he prayed to himself that he was just dreaming and that the mark was not really on his arm.

He did not belong to Voldemort; he wasn't the sort of person who licked anyone's boots, let alone a snivelling snake who could be defeat time and time again by a teenager.

Rolling up his sleeve he stared at the mark as he walked through the deserted corridors, he could hear the portraits whispering to each other as they saw the thing in his arm.

"The Dark Mark."

"I thought they were all having it removed."

"They were, he just came from the Great Hall, Professor Berio cast the removal spell on him, and it did not come off."

"The Mark's real?"

"He's a Death Eater."

"I AM NOT A DEATH EATER!!" he bellowed at the painting in question, making all the people who had been following him from frame to frame, leap back further into the picture.

"Draco?"

He spun around at the voice as he saw Ginny Weasley come around the end of the corridor.

"Ginny?" he said, covering up his arm "What are you doing here?"

"I heard you shouting." She replied walking up to him "What are you doing out here? What were you shouting for?"

"I...I was going back to the Slytherin Common Room." He rushed out, immediately regretting it.

"The Slytherin Common Room is in the dungeons, you have come two flights of stairs ABOVE the ground floor which the Great Hall is on." She countered; walking right up to him before putting her hands on her hips and staring up at him, and considering he was several inches taller than her she had to tilt her neck back to quiet an angle to be able to stare up at him. "And that still does not explain why you were shouting."

"Since when did I have to start explaining my actions to you?" he asked amused, crossing his arms across his chest and meeting her stare.

* * *

"So Mr Malfoy still has the mark?" asked Remus.

"Yes." Nodded Adam "I could have tried a more powerful cancelling charm but I did not want to draw attention, he should be waiting for us in Brian's office."

"Brian?" asked Harry.

"Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore." Explained Remus.

"I got into the habit of calling him Brian a long time ago," added Adam "It's not an easy habit to break."

"Are you sure none of the students noticed that the mark was still on his arm?" asked Remus, returning them to the subject at hand.

"The seventh year behind him did, but I altered his memory."

"You do know that the use of memory charms is restricted." Commented Remus.

"I would like to see them try and arrest me for it." Adam replied as they reached the end of the corridor.

The sight that met Adam, Harry and Remus as they turned the corner on their way towards the Headmasters Office was probably one of the strangest that the school had ever seen.

"It took long enough." Commented Adam, breaking the silence.

"Ron's going to have kittens." Added Harry, his mind was fluctuating rapidly back and forth between wanting to punch Malfoy and complete and utter confusion at the situation "I probably will too later when I realise that this was not some really weird dream."

"Forget Ron, I want to see how Arthur and Lucius react." added Remus, his expression was a very Marauder like grin.

Standing halfway down the corridor, pressed against the wall was Draco Malfoy.

But what was even more humorous was the fact that he was being held there by a certain female Weasley's lips.

Ginny Weasley was pressed up against Draco; one of her hands was gripping his robe while her other was playing with his hair and ensuring his mouth did not leave hers during their tongue wrestling match.

Draco had one hand at the small of her back, pressing her body against his while his other was holding Ginny's leg to his side, his hand gripping the flesh just below the level of her skirt, judging from the ruffled state of her hair one of said hands had previously been running its fingers through it.

"Yes...Ron is definitely going to have kittens." Sighed Harry.

"I do hope we are not interrupting?" asked Adam, a little louder than their previously.

Draco and Ginny jumped apart so fast they could almost hear the air rush back into the gap between them.

Remus chuckled lightly as they both rapidly tried to straighten themselves out and look embarrassed at the same time.

Ginny's cheeks were so red they almost out shone her hair, though her thoroughly kissed lips were even brighter and even harder to hide, she looked as though she had just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

Draco ran his hand through his hair a couple of times to straighten it out, while trying unsuccessfully to look at anything but the redhead in front of him, his expression was more along the lines of confusion than the look of shock on Ginny's face.

"You seem to have got distracted Mr Malfoy." smiled Remus "Lets continue up to the Headmaster's Office shall we?"

"Yes Professor." He replied, grateful at receiving a way out of the embarrassing situation and away from the thoroughly snogged looking Ginny Weasley.

"You come to Miss Weasley." Added Adam as he walked past the pair, he didn't need to be able to see out of the back of his head to know that Draco was trying to bore holes in it.

* * *

Draco felt like cursing the MD Professor when he had invited the girl to go with them.

Why did the annoyingly kissable redhead have to be there when they started probing him about the mark?

And why was he even caring what she would think when she saw it. She was a Weasley, the Weasley's and the Malfoy's had been enemies for decades, why did this one have to treat him with anything other than hate.

How had that happened anyway?

How had they gone from a staring contest to fondling each other in the halls? He remembered them glaring at each other for about twenty seconds followed by her launching herself at him, slamming him into the wall, pulling his head down and covering his mouth with her own.

He could not remember when he had started returning the kiss but he had definitely liked it, not to mention the feeling of her small body pressed against his and certainly the feeling of her bare leg in his hand, just thinking about that leg made him shudder with pleasure.

"Harry's Hazelnuts." Announced Adam, causing the statue guarding the Headmasters Office to start moving.

"Of all the sweets he could have chosen, he had to choose those." Sighed Potter as they proceeded up the staircase.

Going through the open door at the top, Draco got his first look at the Headmasters Office.

The walls were covered in wizard pictures of the previous Head Teachers, there were many strange metal devices around the room, as well as a perch, on which the Headmasters Phoenix sat, a glass case containing the Sword of Gryffindor and a little stand on which sat the Sorting Hat.

At the back of the Office sat the Headmaster surrounded by most of the rest of the teaching staff.

As soon as he entered the room, Snape moved towards him, his eyes blazing.

Grabbing his arm, the Potions Master yanked up his sleeve and exposed the mark; he heard a gasp from Ginny as she spotted it.

"What have you done Malfoy?" He demanded, pushing him up against the office wall.

"Severus." Warned McGonagall "Give him a chance to answer before you condemn him."

The Potions Master slowly released his grip on his robes and allowed him to move away from the wall.

He spared a glance at Ginny who was looking at him with a hurt expression.

"Take a seat Mr Malfoy." Gestured Dumbledore to one of the chairs opposite him.

He moved to one of the chairs and sat down, under the intense gaze of most of the staff.

"Miss Weasley, why are you here?"

"I..."

"I thought it better if she attended." Replied Berio, before Ginny could properly answer, the look he sent McGonagall requested that she did not ask anymore about it as he directed the girl into the chair next to Draco, he would definitely have to find a way to get back at the MD Professor for this, Ginny was making it very hard to concentrate.

"Now, Mr Malfoy," began the Headmaster, levelling those annoying twinkling eyes at him over his glasses "How did you get that mark?"

"I don't know Sir." He replied.

"Did you just wake up with it like everyone else?" asked Potter.

Even though he was a part time Professor, Draco didn't want to answer to Potter, even in his guise as Radcliffe, so he gave the shortest response he could.

"Yes."

"Do you know anything about how you got it that differs from what everyone else knows about how they got theirs?" demanded Snape.

"No Sir."

Looks were exchanged amongst the Professors before Dumbledore continued.

"Mr Malfoy, will you allow Professor Snape into your mind to confirm what you have told us.

Draco didn't like that idea at all but if he said no it would look like an admission of guilt.

"Reluctantly, yes." He nodded as his Head of House came around the desk, drew his wand and pointed it at his head.

"Do not resist." He ordered a split second before his mind was invaded.

Draco felt his memories flashing before his mind, all his thoughts and memories for the last weeks and more blasted through his mind as the Potions Master rummaged amongst his thoughts, ending with his memories of kissing Ginny before the world returned to normal.

As his vision returned, he saw Snape glance at Ginny with a raised eyebrow, before moving to resume his previous position.

"I can find no evidence of anything that would disprove his story and no evidence of memory alteration."

"Very well." Nodded the Headmaster "We must now work out why Mr Malfoy's mark has not come off."

"May I try something Headmaster?" asked Potter after a moment's pause.

"As long as it will not harm Mr Malfoy Harry." He replied.

"If I am correct it shouldn't." he replied, not filling Draco with confidence.

Walking towards him, Draco got out of his chair and took a precautionary step back.

"Stand still Malfoy, I need to touch the mark."

Draco did not move, of all the people he wanted help from, Potter was at the bottom of his list.

"Mr Malfoy," sighed McGonagall "Let Potter do what he needs to."

Draco reluctantly held out his arm.

Taking a hold of his arm, Potter firmly pressed a finger against the mark and waited.

After several seconds, he removed his arm and turned to the others.

"I don't know if it's real, but it was definitely not cast by Voldemort."

"And pray tell us how you know that?" asked Draco's Head of House, while a lot of the room shuddered.

"Show me your mark and I will."

Snape immediately pulled his sleeve up and threw his forearm forward.

"Prove it."

"Severus." Warned Dumbledore, but Potter was already moving.

Draco watched him walk forward and pressed his finger to Snape's mark.

Both immediately grunted as pain cursed through them, originating from both scar and mark, the snake in the skull started twisting on Snape's arm as the mark darkened and started to burn while Potter's scar began to bleed.

* * *

Many miles away a Dark Lord stumbled and grunted in pain, before climbing back to his feet and looking up with a sadistic grin.

* * *

As the finger came in contact with mark, Fleur winced as pain passed down the link before Harry closed his mind.

She quickly schooled her expression and sent a quick look around, only McGonagall seemed to have noticed as she was looking at her curiously, but with a final look she turned her attention back to the two Professor's who Remus and Buffy had just pulled apart.

"That," Harry breathed as he tried to dodge Madam Pomfrey as she tried to clean up his scar "Is what should happen if I touch a real Dark Mark."

"How did you know that would happen?" asked Colette.

"Logic," he replied "Both Voldemort," collecting shudders "And myself experience pain when we come in contact with each other, the Dark Mark is a direct link to him, so when I touched it both he and I, wherever he is, experienced pain, Professor Snape was just unlucky enough to be the conduit for the pain."

"And as Malfoy's mark didn't hurt, this Mouldywart person could not have cast it." Concluded Buffy.

Everyone turned to look at her.

"What?"

"Mouldywart?" asked the Remus.

"It's close enough."

"It sounds nothing like it." Countered Malfoy before realising that he had just diverted attention back to himself, not to mention that he had just spoken back to a Professor.

"Regardless," interrupted Dumbledore "It does suggest that someone else has bound Mr Malfoy to them and I doubt anyone but a Death Eater would have done that, which suggests one of two things."

"Either there are Death Eaters amongst the students," continued Adam "Or a Death Eaters got into the school last night."

"And who is the only Death Eater who knows all the secret passages in the school and can move around it completely unnoticed." Added Harry.

"Peter." Growled Remus, making Fleur and a couple of other teachers look at him warily.

Standing up from behind his desk, Dumbledore moved over to Draco "Harry, can I borrow your wand please?"

Harry flicked his wrist so that his wand shot out of his holster and down into his hand before handing it to the aging mage, several of the Professors looked at him oddly due to the smoothness of the obviously practiced movement.

"Hold your arm out again, please Mr Malfoy." Dumbledore instructed before pointing his own wand at the mark as the arm was presented to him. Muttering something in Latin, he then cast a similar charm on Harry's own wand, both glowed gold for a moment before fading back to normal.

"As I feared," sighed the Headmaster "The Mark was cast with a wand with the same core as Harry's, and the only other wand to share one of Fawkes feathers is Voldemort's own. This means a Death Eater brought it onto the grounds and then returned it to him."

"How do we know a student did not bring it on the express?" asked Fleur.

"Voldemort would not entrust his wand to a student." replied her mate.

"I am reluctantly forced to agree." Snape added looking decidedly annoyed at having to confirm Harry's thoughts.

"So the next question," Continued the Headmaster "Is why was the mark cast upon Mr Malfoy."

There was a moment of silence as everyone thought about the answer, before finally Draco spoke.

"It's a reminder."

"A reminder of what Mr Malfoy?" asked McGonagall.

"My father instructed me that I would be receiving the mark before the end of this school year, he...he has probably heard that I have not been quite my usual self around the school and wanted to send me a message that he still controlled me."

"Do I take it from your recent attitude towards others that you do not want to take the mark Mr Malfoy?" asked Dumbledore, the entire room turned to look at him, wondering what his answer would be.

"No." he replied slowly "No, I don't. I still support the Pure-Blood ideal that we are better than Mu..."

"Malfoy!" growled Snape.

"Muggle-Born's and Half-Bloods, but I am not willing to serve someone who is incapable of defeating a teenage boy as many times as he has."

Harry smirked at his answer.

"Not to mention the fact that there is a high possibility that I could be killed and that my father would never let me become more powerful than him."

"Fair enough Mr Malfoy." Nodded Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling "Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I am also of the opinion that Voldemort probably wants you to be the leader of the children of, or possible Death Eaters that are amongst the student body and he is also trying to point out that you belong to him, which you certainly don't."

"Can it be removed?" asked Buffy.

"No." Snape replied "The mark is permanent."

"So what are we going to do about Mr Malfoy?" asked Colette as again all eyes turned to the student in question.

"My Malfoy," began Adam "Am I correct in thinking that you still want nothing to do with Voldemort?"

"Yes." He replied.

"And am I also correct in thinking that your father is going to continue to try to control you?"

"Probably, he does not like to lose."

"In that case I would like to recommend that for the time being we do nothing."

"I beg your pardon!!" exclaimed McGonagall while several other Professors made similar sounds of surprise "We cannot do nothing when Death Eaters have the ability to enter and leave the school at will."

"Especially when they are powerful enough to cast spells on the whole school at once." Added Flitwick.

"Peter is not that powerful," Remus thought aloud "He could not have cast a spell of that magnitude."

"So more than one Death Eater has access to the school!" argued McGonagall "Even more reason for us to do something."

"I disagree," continued Adam "I believe Wormtail is the only Death Eater able to get into the school, anyone else would have alerted the Headmaster, but as a rat the wards would not recognise him as a human in disguise."

"Are you saying what I think you are saying?" asked Harry.

"I am afraid I am." nodded Adam.

"Well for those of us that haven't got a clue what you are on about please explain it." Huffed Buffy.

"He is saying that students helped Wormtail cast the spell." Harry elaborated.

"Probably several of them." Continued Adam "Not many students have the raw power needed to cast a spell of that size on their own, and as we have no way of identifying them we must do all we can to lure them out."

"What is your idea?" Remus asked.

"If Mr Malfoy is going to continue to lean away from the current views of the rest of Slytherin House then it is probable that he will draw attention to himself, Voldemort will likely either order whoever serves him amongst the student population to get revenge upon you once you show him that you are not on his side or will try to find a new way to force you to join his side, I recommend that, if he agrees, we use him to help us find the spy's Voldemort has in Hogwarts."

"Are you suggesting using a student as bait!" exclaimed McGonagall at the same time as several other teachers cried out in shock.

"Only if he agrees."

"You cannot use a student like that." Countered Flitwick.

"It's his choice."

"But you can't..."

"I'll do it."

All eyes again turned to Draco.

"I'll do it." He repeated "It basically means I just have to wait to see who is going to have a go at me next, so I might as well have a bit of support for when it happens."

"Excellent." Nodded Adam "It is decided then, Mr Malfoy will be the bait to lure out the next generation of Death Eaters.

* * *

Several minutes later Ginny and Draco walked out of the Headmasters Office.

They walked down the corridor, turned the first corner and went down a flight of stairs before either of them actually said anything.

"You kissed me." Accused Draco.

"You kissed back." Returned Ginny.

"You started it."

"You didn't exactly complain."

"I didn't have much choice; you tackled me into the wall and started running your fingers through my hair."

"You ran yours through mine to."

"You wouldn't release my head."

"You would not release my back OR my leg."

Draco gave an involuntary shudder at the thought of that leg in his hand.

"You like the idea of holding my legs don't you." She grinned evilly.

"I do not." He snapped.

"You do to." She smirked, subtly pulling her skirt up a bit higher on her hips to expose a bit more of her lower extremities, she also increased her pace slightly so that she was walking ahead of him, swinging her hips a more as she walked.

She could feel his eyes on her, she loved the feeling that the power created within her, that she could affect him so.

Spinning around and coming to a stop she was fast enough to catch him starring at her behind.

"Told you." She said satisfactory.

* * *

He came to a stop, looking slightly shocked as he realised what he had been staring at.

It took Draco a moment to recover, he was angry; he had been staring at her as she walked and what was worse was that he had been caught doing it.

She was grinning at him; she was doing it deliberately to catch him out.

His eyes blazed as he realized he had been deliberately trapped.

With a snarl of anger he strode forward grabbed her arms and forced her roughly up against the wall, causing her to give a short grunt of pain.

"This is a very dangerous game you are playing little girl." He growled, his face mere inches from hers.

"Who says I'm playing." She whispered back.

The statement took him by surprise, but not as much as when she hooked her legs around his waist, pulled his face to hers and clamped down on his lips.

He mentally cursed himself when he stopped struggling and gave in within five seconds.

"Ron's going to do his nut when he finds out."

Draco jumped back so fast at the voice that Ginny didn't even have the chance to release him.

* * *

If Harry had continued looking as he walked on past he would have seen the strange site of Draco standing normally in the middle of the hall, albeit slightly shaken and dishevelled with his hands by his sides and a panting Ginny Weasley clamped around him looking equally as shaken and dishevelled as the pair stared at his disappearing form.

He didn't even bother to try to stop them as he passed, after being with Fleur for months he knew better than to get in the way, especially as neither looked exactly reluctant.

He did wonder about Ginny's sense of taste in choosing Malfoy of all people but he was a lot less resistant to the idea than he would have been just the day before, hearing Malfoy's little speech up in the Headmaster's Office had warmed him to Malfoy a bit.

...Just a bit.

"If you hurt her Malfoy," he called over his shoulder "I will have Sapphire bite your legs off."

* * *

A few seconds after Harry disappeared from site, Draco and Ginny turned to look at each other, partially in shock that Harry had just accepted the relationship so easily and partially because they realised that she was still wrapped around her.

"Errr. ... Tried Ginny.

"Errr..." Draco also tried.

"I errr..."

"Could you errr..."

"Yes, errr..." she nodded, un-entangling herself and dropping back to the floor.

Standing in front of each other they continued to stare at each other.

"Errr..."

"Oh, stop saying errr!!!" he said loudly

"You were saying errr too."

"I was not."

"You were too."

"Oh don't start that again. We are going around in circles."

An awkward pause started that lasted almost a minute.

"So what now?" asked Draco "We can't really pretend nothing happened."

"Not when we...twice." she added embarrassed.

"No." he agreed quickly.

"It would also be stupid to pretend that we did not enjoy it."

"Yes."

"So we should...move forward...in some way."

"We should do...something."

"Yes."

"Something together."

"Yes."

Another pause.

"There's Hogsmeade next weekend."

"Yes. We could..."

"Yes. The Three Broomsticks?"

"At ten?"

"Yes."

Another pause.

"So what does this make us?" asked Ginny finally.

"Stark raving mad?"

"Probably." She agreed smiling for the first time since they were interrupted "But I meant are...are we a..."

"A...?"

"A...A...couple?

Draco's eyes widened.

"Well...Well I...I...Well I...suppose."

"I'll...I'll see you soon then."

"Soon." he nodded.

It took them about thirty seconds to walk awkwardly away in opposite directions.

And another twenty for Pansy Parkinson to come out of the shadows behind a suit of armour and head rapidly towards the Slytherin Common Room.

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:25__th__September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Great Hall_

_Time:Early Morning_

It took less than six hours for the whole school to find out about Draco and Ginny.

Harry had been right, Ron had done his nut. He had almost hit poor Colin when he asked Ron if it was true, luckily for Colin, Lavender and Parvati (at least he thought it was Parvati) had been there and confirmed the truth of the statement to Ron, telling him that Pansy had seen the pair making out rather passionately, giving Colin the chance to run for it.

Ginny had known the second Ron walked in through the doors of the Great Hall for breakfast that he knew. The bright red face and clenched fists were a dead giveaway as he marched towards the lonely spot on the Slytherin Table where Draco was sitting alone, receiving looks from the rest of his house.

Ginny immediately stood and headed towards her brother but she could not get to him before he reached Draco.

But luckily Buffy and Adam could as they moved from the staff table; walked straight passed Draco moved in front of Ron, Buffy levitated Ron about an inch off the floor with her wand before moving him backwards out through the doors with Ginny and Adam close behind, Ron struggling to free himself all the way.

The entire hall watched as they left, before exploding in conversation as soon as they were out.

* * *

"Put me down!!" shouted Ron as Buffy directed him into an empty classroom.

Buffy dropped him to the floor rather roughly so that he landed on his backside, just as Ginny came in and slammed the door.

Ron, standing up, moved to speak, but Ginny got there first.

"Shut up Ron, you don't get a say in this."

"You can NOT go out with Malfoy!"

"That's for me to decide!"

"He's a Malfoy!"

"So?"

"So, the Malfoy's have been at war with us for decades!"

"I'm not at war with Draco!"

"Draco?"

"It's his name Ronald!"

"He's evil!"

"He's not!"

"His father almost got you killed!"

"He is not his father!"

"He almost got Buckbeak executed."

"He likes me!"

"He's been insulting you for five years!"

"Four years, he hasn't said a thing against me this year!"

"So less than one month without insults he's good enough to go to Hogsmeade with!"

"Excuse me!!" interrupted Buffy loudly "But Ginny is right, it is her choice Ron."

"See."

"But..."

"Let her decide what to do with her life.".

"But..."

"Enough." Adam snapped "Ginny, you left half a slice of toast unfinished in the hall; I think it would like to be eaten."

"Yes Professor." She smiled turning around and heading out of the room.

"But..."

"But nothing Ron, it's her decision." Adam said firmly before both he and Buffy turned and following Ginny out.

Ron stood there fuming for several minutes before Neville poked his head around the door.

"Err Ron, are you coming for breakfast."

He stepped back as Ron stiffly walked out of the room.

When they got back to the breakfast table Harry had turned up, this morning he was seated at Gryffindor Table, he already knew the reason for the foul look on Ron's face as he came back in; he had seen Adam, Buffy and Ginny return a few minutes before.

When Ron dropped himself heavily into the seat beside Hermione and opposite him, Harry knew what ever conversation they had would end badly.

"She's going with you." He announced.

"What?" spluttered Harry around his pumpkin juice.

"He can't do that!" argued Hermione.

"You are going with Ginny to Hogsmeade." Ron repeated firmly, gesturing his head towards his sister sitting further down the table.

"No I'm not." He countered.

"You will go to the Three Broomsticks with her next weekend."

"I'm with Fleur."

"Its only to get her away from Malfoy, it doesn't have to be anything serious."

"You can't do that." Argued Hermione "It's wrong."

"It's wrong for her to be with Malfoy."

"I won't do it."

"You will, Fleur won't mind, she knows you can't really cheat on her."

"I still won't do it."

"You will, I am not letting Malfoy get anywhere near her."

"When you left the hall I bet Adam and Buffy told you not to interfere." Tried Hermione again.

"It's not their decision. Besides Buffy would be on her side and Adam, what experience has he got with girls?" Returned Ron.

Hermione opened her mouth to speak again before realising that it was not public knowledge that Adam had had a wife.

"He barely ever shows an emotion, I have never seen him smile FULLY even once, he just does those silly half smiles and his sense of humour is poor at the best of times."

As Ron continued to argue with the pair, only Harry was aware of Adam raising his head revealing a raised eyebrow when he became the subject of the discussion.

When Adam left the staff table some ten minutes later, Ron was still at it and did not notice the gesture that Adam made to Harry, Draco and Ginny.

Continuing out of the hall he proceeded up to is tower room and immediately activated the fireplace.

"Weasley Wizard Wheezes."

The fire flared before a face appeared.

"Hello, Fred Weasley's this end, who's that your end?"

"My names Adam, I am one of the MD Professor's at Hogwarts."

"Ahh, we've heard of you," said another head as it appeared beside the first "Our brother and sister think very highly of you."

"Thank you."

"Well, now the pleasantries are out of the way,"

"What can we do you for?" asked the twins, speaking alternating lines.

"I gather you two like the odd prank."

The eyes of the pair instantly started to shine and their mouths curved into even wider smiles.

"You gather correctly."

"What did you have in mind?"

* * *

AUTHORS NOTE 1: Another chapter everyone, I would just like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, or for those of you don't celebrate Christmas have a happy holiday.

AUTHORS NOTE 2: I will also apologize in advance as the next chapter may take a bit longer as believe it or not I do most of the work on this story during my work lunch break and as I am currently off for Christmas and as I will be going abroad to visit relatives in Germany for a few days it will take me longer to finish the next chapter and to get it run by my beta's who probably are doing things for the holidays as well, so I apologize if there is a wait for that.


	82. CH82 Practical Jokes & Ominous Meetings

Chapter 82 – Practical Jokes and Ominous Meetings 

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:24__th__September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogsmeade –The Three Broomsticks _

_Time:Morning_

The next weekend the casual observers in The Three Broomsticks watched as Harry Potter nervously sat at a table waiting for Ginny Weasley to arrive.

No one had quite figured out how Ron had managed to get Ginny to agree to go to Hogsmeade with Harry, especially as she had agreed immediately without a single raised word, but the pub was full of students wanting to find out what was going to happen.

Ron, Neville, Luna, Buffy, Adam, Draco (under an invisibility cloak) and a curious Hermione were all sitting at nearby tables observing the scene as were at least another dozen students from all the houses. Ron, a reluctant Hermione and Neville were there supporting Harry while Draco and Luna (for some reason none of them were quiet sure of) were there supporting Ginny.

"This is wrong Ronald." said Hermione shaking her head "Lets just forget about it and go to Honeydukes or Zonko's, don't put Harry through this."

"It's not as if he said no."

"He DID," she replied annoyed "Multiple times, you practically press ganged him."

"It's only until Ginny sees sense."

"It's her life."

"And she can do almost anything she wants with it except go out with a Slytherin."

Hermione sighed in defeat and went back to looking at the door.

Several minutes later it opened to reveal Ginny Weasley.

But she did not look like the Ginny Weasley they had all known for the past five years.

"Holly shit." Ron exclaimed at the same time as several other patrons, most saying things a lot more extreme at the sight of the girl, a lot could not even vocalise their shock, some whispered things like "Is that legal?" and "You should need a licence to dress like that."

The cause of said remarks were due to several factors:

Her hair had been done and hung around her face like a mane of fire and looked a lot more wild than it usually did, she had make up on that included red lipstick and eye shadow which together with the hair made for a very seductive look. She was dressed in a school shirt (probably last year's judging on how tight it was) that was tied up under her chest exposing her flat stomach, a school skirt (also probably last years as it was only just decent), a pair of black stockings, the top of which could just be seen when she moved and a pair of high heeled shoes. On top of all that the smile she was wearing would have made men get down on their knees and beg and several of them (ranging from third years up to some of the significantly older adult patrons) were starting to have serious blood flow problems because of it.

The stunned on lookers watched as Ginny scanned the pub before catching sight of Harry. Smiling she began slinking her way towards him.

"She's either doing one of two things," said Padma from the next table "Either she really REALLY wants Harry, or she is getting back on you and Harry for trying to control her."

"No matter what she is doing I don't think Harry is going to survive." Added Adam from a nearby table, unusually though he was smiling widely as he spoke.

The group watched as on the other side of the pub, Harry nervously greeted Ginny and directed her towards the corner table on which sat two butterbeers. There table was one of those where the seats are like a settee bending around the table with a couple of normal chairs filling the sides of the tables facing out into the room.

As they moved into it, no one missed just how close Ginny moved to Harry.

* * *

Fred Weasley had a feeling that he had just made a big mistake.

He liked a prank for sure, but this was pushing the boundary even for him.

How had that Professor managed to talk him into taking Harry's place?

He had expected a bit of cuddling, maybe a chased kiss, but whoever was disguised as his sister who was also in on the prank (though he had no clue who it was as Adam had not told him) was obviously planning more and he was honestly not sure how far he was willing to go with ANYONE wearing his sisters body.

Whoever was playing Ginny was doing everything they could to unsettle him, right at that moment she licked her lips in a very seductive manner while looking at him from under her highlighted lashes.

When a stocking wrapped foot started to run up his leg he almost unsettled the table.

"I..." he tried desperately "I need to visit the gents."

He didn't wait for her reply before dashing from the chair and heading for the room in question.

Closing the door behind him, Fred leaned heavily against the row of sinks.

A few seconds later Ron and Neville followed him in.

"What are you doing in here Harry," demanded Ron "You've only just started."

"And I'm finishing it now." Fred replied back, trying to sound as much like Harry as possible, he might not like the direction the prank was heading in, but he wasn't going to let Ron know who he really was yet.

"Harry..."

"NO Ron." He called back just as Hermione slipped in the door.

"Am I interrupting something?"

"Hermione," whispered Neville "This is the men's room."

"No one saw me enter," she sighed "The boys were too busy ogling Ginny and the girls are all trying to listen to what Luna is talking to Ginny about. So what did I miss?"

"Harry's chickening out." Ron huffed.

"I didn't 'chicken in' in the first place."

"Harry you have to."

"Ron, she ran her foot up my leg."

"It doesn't matter, she...She what!!"

"She ran her foot up my leg."

"She's trying to rattle you." Explained Hermione.

"She is rattling me."

"Then rattle her back." Ordered Ron.

Several seconds of silence followed while everyone turned to look at the Weasley.

"Ron...Are you actually telling me to feel up your sister?"

"You only have to do it a little bit." He added

"I cannot honestly believe I am hearing this."

"Ron, Ginny is like a sister to Harry." Reminded Hermione "Kissing, hugging and a few looks are one thing, they are still wrong, but you are practically telling Harry to molest your sister."

"You only need to do it for a bit, I know you of all people won't do anything inappropriate."

"The whole thing is inappropriate Ron!!"

"She's still Ginny, she's not Colette or Tonks, she will lose her nerve as soon as she realises that you are doing the same things back to her."

"I wouldn't bet on it." Commented Neville, who the others had mostly forgotten was there, him having said so little "If she wants to get her own back she will."

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the table, Luna was sitting beside Ginny.

"Hermione will have figured it out by now." Explained Luna "So Harry is either going to come back and try to pretend nothing happened or he is going to run for it, probably the former then the latter."

"Ginny, I can't do this much longer, these shoes are killing me and I feel so exposed wearing these clothes."

"You only have to pretend to be me for a little longer."

"And I cannot believe you are actually allowing this much of your body to be displayed."

"It makes me feel powerful," she grinned "When I was walking down the corridor away from Dumbledore's Office and Draco was watching my skirt flick up, I felt..."

"STOP...Please stop. I may not try to stop you going out with Malfoy, but I do not want to hear about him looking at you, about him kissing you and especially not when I am wearing your body and a lot less than you were at the time."

Luna laughed.

"Why are you letting me look like you wearing this anyway?"

"Because Ron needs to understand that I am not a little girl anymore and that I control my own life. If I am making a mistake with Draco, he needs to understand that it is my mistake to make."

Ginny looked at Luna for a moment before saying.

"You really have grown up haven't you?"

"It's about time somebody other than Draco noticed it."

"I think after that entrance everyone will have noticed it."

"Harry's coming back." Hissed Draco from under the cloak.

Luna stood and dreamily walked back to the chair she and Neville had been occupying.

As Harry resumed his seat next to Ginny, the entire room was surprised when he pulled himself right up against her and casually wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

* * *

"Told you," grinned Ron "Did you see the look of shock on her face when Harry moved so close to... to...Mione, what are you doing."

"Getting closer to you Ron." She replied as she snuggled up against him "Since you are putting Harry and Ginny through this, I think it's only fair that you do too."

"But I...I..." Ron tried, only to lose his voice half way when Hermione straddled him and her lips started to kiss, nip and suck at his neck.

Thusly he found it very hard to concentrate as the Ginny and Harry duplicates each tried to outdo one another.

* * *

Fred was getting increasingly uncomfortable, Ginny had one of her hands in his and was running her fingers in circles over the back of it while her other hand was playing with the ends of his scruffy hair, at the same time as his other hand was massaging small circles just before the hem of Ginny's skirt.

He could not keep this up, if either of them went much further it would be considered incest.

Ginny made the next move, moving her head to suckle on his neck, he was vaguely aware of giggling and wolf whistles in the background from the assembled crowd.

He very reluctantly bent his own head down to tease her neck.

She visibly jumped when he did this, but quickly recovered when she straddled him and started moving her kisses up his neck.

He followed suit, he was going to break any second and he prayed so would she.

They kissed up their necks, onto their cheeks, over their noses and then both pulled back briefly, knowing what was coming next.

Almost the entire pub watched transfixed as both slowly moved their lips towards each other and then with only a centimetre to spare, both broke.

At exactly the same moment, both pushed away from each other, Fred getting pushed off the seat and Ginny's double landing on the table, knocking over their drinks and upturning the table as she too fell to the floor.

The whole room exploded with laughter as the two scrambled to get to their feet, all the while Ron was struggling to try to see around Hermione who was currently nibbling on his ear in a most un-Hermione like way.

"No more." Breathed Fred "Just...No more."

"I cannot do that anymore." Agreed the Ginny double "A joke can only go so far."

"I think," gasped Adam in hysterics "That the joke is on you."

It was then that they noticed that he was not laughing, but giggling...in a rather effeminate way.

"Are you feeling alright Professor?" asked Padma.

"I'm fine," he said in between more spurts of giggles "But...I am not Adam."

The half of the room that had not already been looking at Adam now swivelled to look in his direction.

"It's been a double prank, boys." He grinned "And you will see one bit in a matter of seconds when your Polyjuice Potion starts to wear off."

On queue the duplicates of Harry and Ginny began to fluctuate as they both began to grow, Ginny grabbing and put on a cloak lying nearby as ripping sounds originated from her attire as she got significantly taller, Harry also started casting spells on his clothes to incorporate the extra height.

Both grew in size, they're hair got shorter, Harry's went the same shade as Ginny's as they both reverted to the forms of Fred and George Weasley who stared at each other in horror as they realised what they had been doing to each other.

"We've played a prank on the pranksters." Adam said, continuing to giggle though a lot less than before, though the next run of events did nothing to stop the laughter of Adam or any other members of the room.

* * *

Ron was still struggling underneath Hermione who was flicking her tongue over his ear lobe, while she covered his eyes with her hand.

"Hermione please," he gasped, his breathing very laboured "I need to see what's happening."

He felt her remove her lips from his ear and shift slightly.

Then, in a distinctly male voice ask?

"Was that good for you too?"

Even Fred and George's jumps looked small compared to Ron's

As the hand covering his eyes was removed he saw Hermione morphing back into the shape of Adam.

Ron literally screamed and threw him/her off of his lap with such force that he/she went completely over the table in front of them to land gracefully in the chair opposite, the force of him doing so resulted in Ron's chair being knocked over so that Ron was lying on his back, the action of doing so knocked into the giggling Adam's chair knocking him out of the seat to land on the floor again in hysterics beside Ron.

"Hopefully that will teach you Ron," said the Adam that had been Hermione as he got to his feet (his clothes had reverted back to what they usually were as he transformed back) "Never try to interfere with anyone else's choice of partner."

With that he walked around the table, helped his giggling counterpart who was reverting to the form of Hermione, to her feet before turning back to Ron and finished with the line:

"And never say that my sense of humour is bad, as I think everyone else here would disagree."

With that he bowed, turned and walked out of the pub, followed shortly by a very annoyed and embarrassed Ron as the rest of the pub laughed at him.

"So where are the real Malfoy and Ginny?" asked Lavender from amongst the laughing crowd.

"Over there." pointed Hermione, as everyone eyes swivelled to look at where Neville and Luna had been sitting, in their place were Draco and Ginny, snuggling up against each other "The real Harry and Fleur are at Madam Puddifoot's enjoying themselves."

* * *

"I have to give it you your brothers." Smiled Draco "That was quiet the show."

"Yes, the looks on their faces was priceless." Returned Ginny from his lap, their conversation was quiet enough so that only they knew what was being said "It's not often that someone can actually prank them."

"I must admit that I dislike Professor Berio a bit less after tha..."

He was cut off by a raven diving in through the door, startling the poor student who had the misfortune to be the one opening the door at the time, before coming to rest upon the table in front of the pair.

"Oh no." Draco sighed slowly, retrieving the letter around its leg.

"What?" Ginny asked.

"It's from my mother."

* * *

Draco was in trouble, he just knew it.

His mother's message told him to meet her at a small, fairly quiet restaurant in the town immediately and from the tone of the letter he could tell that she meant business.

The restaurant seemed fairly smart, the sort you would go to if you wanted to have a formal meal while discussing important topics.

He opened the door to the restaurant and a waitress approached, she was in her mid thirties, blond and dressed as waitresses are in the Wizarding world, which he has been told is exactly the same as in the Muggle world, but being a Pureblood he would always claim that the Muggles got it from them.

"Mr. Malfoy, Mrs. Malfoy is a waiting your arrival in the Private Dining Room, please follow me." she lead the way to the back of the restaurant and opened a door.

The waitress entered and bowed, the room seemed more upper class than the main room, obviously for the privileged few and sitting in the middle of the otherwise empty room was his mother at a small table with a tea set in front of her.

"Mr. Malfoy." she announced "Is there anything else I can get you my Lady?"

_You fool of a waitress._ Thought Draco,_ She's not a Lady, she hasn't got a title._

"No thank you, you may go." His mother said in her usual regal tone. She was dressed as she usually was, in long elegant black robes with silver trim; it was all Malfoy ever wore.

The waitress backed out of the room and closed the door behind her.

"Morning Draco." his mother greeted gesturing to the chair opposite her.

"Morning mother." he greeted back, bowing as he did, all those years of training were a hard thing to shake off.

"Draco, we have discussed this before, you only need to show that level of respect in public."

"Sorry mother, force of habit." he apologised moving to the chair.

"How have you been Draco?"

Draco was nervous, that was an unusual question for her to ask.

"Well mother."

"Are you sure?" she asked waving her hand over the tea set, another cup appearing and the tea beginning to pour itself "I have heard from Mrs. Parkinson..."

_Oh balls._

"That her daughter is very concerned about you. According to her you have been spending a lot of time with Mr. Potter and his friends."

_That's not true; it's just Ginny outside of the MD lessons._

"And you barely spend any time with herself, Vincent, Gregory and Millicent."

_How in Merlin's name am I going to get out of this? Shit, shit SHIT._

"Would you care to explain?" She finished sitting back, sipping her tea.

"Well mother it's just that lately I...well...you see, three sugars and cream," he attempted, interspacing his stuttering with his drink order to the milk, cream and sugar that had been hovering, waiting to be told what to do, also providing him with a bit longer to think about a reply "It's just..."

"Two sugars," his mother corrected "It's not good to have too much sugar Draco and don't stutter it doesn't suit you."

She seemed remarkably calm and casual considering what they were discussing.

"Sorry mother...well you see it's like this..."

"It's the Weasley girl isn't it?" she interrupted, looking at him over the rim of her tea cup.

He just starred at her in surprise, luckily he wasn't gaping, and years of training had taught him not to.

"How did you..."

"Miss Parkinson also told her mother about your...closeness to her."

"Oh."

"Indeed." his mother nodded "What is the situation between the two of you Draco?"

She still seemed far to calm to be having this conversation.

"I have asked her to Hogsmeade today."

"And...Did she accept?" his mother asked taking another drink.

"Yes I...I think I...I may...love her, mother."

For a second he thought he saw a twinkle of triumph in his mother's eyes.

"You...love her?" his mother asked, she was STILL very calm, he was sure she should have shouted or at least tried to talk him out of the match by now.

"...Yes." he said after a moment's thought.

"Well then..." she sighed "I guess that's that then."

_Here it comes, she's about to explode._

"I had better start preparing to be a mother in law."

Draco couldn't help it this time; his chin did hit the floor, not just at the calm reaction but at the huge leap from one date to the thought of marriage in one move.

"Don't gape Draco, it looks like you are trying to catch Pixies."

"Aren't…" he tried "Aren't you mad?"

She smiled.

SHE SMILED.

Narcissa Black Malfoy did not smile, not real smiles.

"Far from it," she replied "I was dreading the day when you were going to tell me you were marrying Miss Parkinson."

"I...I thought you would want me to...Pureblood and all that."

His mother sighed

"Miss Weasley is a Pureblood, though you are right...your father will and about twenty years ago I may have disapproved of the match, but not now. Sometimes I wish I had never married your father."

Draco gasped.

"I sometimes wonder why I didn't just follow my sister's example and marry some nice dull Muggle-Born."

"Aunt Andromeda you mean."

"Yes," she nodded "She and cousin Sirius got it right, they had their way out and took it, even cousin Regulus tried, but he was already in too deep. I should have done the same...I was always the youngest child. Bella, my oldest sister, was always the favourite because she agreed most with our parent's view of the world and she went on to marry Lestrange. Andy, the middle sister, disowned the family as soon as she could, but still ended up somewhat respectable, although not in our parent's eyes, by marrying Tonks; even though he was Muggle-Born he was very rich as well as being powerful in the Muggle Ministry."

She paused for a moment to collect her thoughts.

"I could have gone either way, but one thing I hated was coming second to Bella, I didn't mind losing to Andy, but not to Bella, so I had to beat her and the only way was to marry someone even more powerful...like Lucius."

She paused again before continuing the explanation.

"Thanks to that I am now one of the most powerful and influential women in the country, but what pleased me more was the fact that I had beaten Bella and that Mother and Father respected me again...but as I got older I realised the mistake I made marrying Lucius."

She sighed.

"Now I just want to see you grow up...I don't want to see you make the same mistakes I made."

Draco was stunned, his mother had hidden this very well, he never would have guessed.

"Mother...there is something else."

She looked up.

"I don't want to..." he paused, thinking about his next words carefully "To follow in father's footsteps." he finished tapping his arm where his mark was.

His mother understood and seemed to visibly relax as he finished.

"Thank Merlin, I knew if you did I would have lost everything." she leaned over the table and engulfed her son in her arms.

Draco was shocked; he had never seen his mother act like this before, the most anyone had ever seen her do was to bow to someone, a hug was unheard of, practically a taboo.

After about a minute she withdrew.

"So," she began regaining her composure "When do I get to meet the future mother of my grandchildren."

Draco was even more shocked.

"Well...I...I think she will probably be in the Three Broomsticks, we along with the new Muggle Defence Professor, her twin brothers and a couple of the others from the DOM last year played a prank on her youngest brother, Potter's friend."

"You joined with infamous Weasley Wizard Wheezes twins to play a prank on one of their own brothers."

"And them," he added with an evil smile "They were playing a prank while being pranked."

"How did you manage that?"

"The youngest male Weasley tried to ruin our day by forcing Potter to go to Hogsmeade with Ginny despite the fact that he was dead against it and is with the Veela Delacour. The male MD Professor, he didn't like the idea of him interfering so he contacted the twins and got them to take Polyjuice Potion so that they looked like Potter and Ginny, but without them knowing who each other was disguised as, at the same time the MD Professor swapped forms with Weasley's girlfriend Granger. The twins each tried to startle the other one into breaking by getting increasingly more inappropriate while at the same time the professor did the same to Weasley. When the disguises were revealed the twins and their brother jumped so hard they fell out of their seats.

"What is the world coming to?" She smiled, almost laughing, before changing the subject "I have heard of these new Professors, Lucius is fairly aggravated about it." she added with a slight smile "Tell me, what are they like?"

"Well Professor Summers who prefers to be called Buffy, she was a Muggle but can now use magic and is exceptionally fast."

"Indeed, she's the Vampire Slayer from another dimension?" she commented.

Draco was yet again shocked.

"You know about that?" Draco asked, he had been told at the meeting after the incident in the MD room.

"Yes, I consulted with a particularly powerful Wiccan coven in Devon to find out more after I overheard Lucius talking about it; they explained the rest to me."

"Oh." Draco responded, he should never doubt his mother's resourcefulness "Well, yes it was her...and the other, Professor Berio-Megiltura, but he prefers just Adam. He wears the sort of clothes father would be proud of. I originally thought he must be from one of the rich wizard families, until I discovered that he was The Guardian..."

"Of Light." she finished "I know, I overhead that too, what's he like?"

"He uses a staff."

"Really." his mother said with a certain amount of surprise "Not many people have those."

She replaced her cup and stood.

"Well come on then."

"Pardon?" Draco responded.

"Let's go and meet this girl of yours."

* * *

Ron had been around Hogsmeade three times and he was still furious at those who pranked him, he finally settled on a destination and turned into the Hogs Head.

He ordered a butterbeer and seated himself at a quiet table and was currently the only person in the pub.

Or at least he was until Remus walked in.

"Morning Ron, mind if I join you?"

Ron opened his mouth to speak, but never got the chance as the Werewolf immediately seated himself.

They sat in silence for a while until Ron mumbled.

"Aren't you going to get yourself a drink Professor?"

"Being a teacher I've got to set an example." To which Ron snorted at the thought of a marauder setting an example for anyone...other than the twins.

"I heard what happened." He continued "I know you are angry at them."

"Damn right." Ron muttered, temporarily forgetting that he was talking to a Professor.

"But they were right none the less. It is Ginny's life and she has the right to live it the way and with whomever she chooses."

"But Malfoy..."

"Malfoy will be watched Ron. Do you really think Harry, Hermione, your brothers or any of us who know what Draco's father is like are going to not watch his every move. You were not present at the meeting where we needed to talk to Draco about his father's choice of master so you did not hear what he said. Harry was at that meeting and he is not interfering with Ginny's relationship with him. You trust Harry so trust his judgement in this."

Remus said nothing for another minute or so, letting his words sink in.

He knew Ron was trying to be less aggressive but the prank had obviously been a bit too much for him this soon.

There were several more minutes of silence until Ron finally spoke.

"I reserve the right to cut his balls off if he hurts her."

"I think a lot of people are planning on doing that if he tries anything."

"And I still don't like it." Ron said firmly.

"You don't have to, just let her lead her life the way she wants and watch out for her."

Another minute of silence.

"I think I'm going to head back to the Three Broomsticks?" said Ron.

Remus smiled.

"I think that's a..."

He never got the chance to finish as the front wall exploded inward.


	83. CH83 What Goes Up, Might Come Down

Chapter 83 – What Goes Up, Might Come Down

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:24__th__September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Adam's Tower_

_Time:Noon_

Adam was in his tower room; he had flown back after the prank had finished.

He was sitting on the balcony overlooking Hogwarts.

It was one of the things he usually did when he wasn't teaching, marking work or giving Buffy hints as to how to incorporate magic into her fighting.

She was becoming quiet proficient and she had only been learning for a few weeks, she knew most of the basic spells, plus a couple of duelling spells that given the state of the world could come in handy in a crisis.

He was doing what he was usually doing when he was alone.

Thinking.

What Buffy would probably have called 'zoning', and the heavy cloud cover outside wasn't helping.

He had been thinking a lot about Sara lately. Seeing Harry with Fleur, Hermione with Ron, Neville with Luna, and Ginny with Draco was bringing back memories, especially Ginny now that she wore Sara's ring.

He didn't think she even noticed the type of ring it was, he knew Hermione and Draco would not tell her, but he just wished she would conceal it a bit, every time he saw her, he was reminded of his wife.

His line of thought stopped when his magic picked up something.

He stopped and focused on the something he was sensing, trying to identify it.

He sat up straight; his senses were off the scale.

Jumping to his feet, he ran back into the tower summoned his staff from beside the fire before running back out the window and jumping over the wall and beginning to fall.

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:24__th__September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogsmeade – The Three Broomsticks_

_Time:Noon_

In The Three Broomsticks there was carnage.

Curses were being shot into the pub blowing up everything in sight, Ginny, Hermione and the twins had taken cover behind their upturned tables, unfortunately, most of the rest of the room had not been quick enough.

Silence fell; everyone else in the room was now unconscious, badly injured, dead or dying, unfortunately most of the crowd that had been in the pub for the prank had either left or had been congregated in a large group around one table to chat about what had happened, as they had been so tightly packed together in the small pub, when the spells started flying, the chairs tables and other students were in the way, making them easy targets for large multi-person spells.

Hermione and the others were lucky enough to be away from the group.

Ginny had not moved from where she had been earlier; Hermione had been talking to the twins about the prank while they tried to convince her to buy some of their products. On the other side of the room Hermione could see Neville and Luna also crouched behind another table.

Hermione nudged Ginny and the twins and pointed at the pair.

Neville mouthed to them "Tell us when." Hermione nodded, she knew they were going to attack on their command.

"That went very well." one of the Death Eaters commented with a distinctively evil voice.

"Yes, I thought there would be more opposition, though I'm not surprised, stupid Mudblood's, couldn't defend themselves against a house elf."

They howled with laughter.

The twins almost jumped up at this but were restrained by Hermione and Ginny's hands on their shoulders.

"Are you crazy?" Hissed Ginny "There are too many of them."

Hermione agreed, there were more people laughing than just the two that had spoken, probably at least ten, they couldn't take on those odds.

"Shall we move on to stage two?" one of the Death Eaters asked with eager anticipation.

Just then there was a scream from the street and the sound of people running.

"Sounds like it's already started, but we could make things more interesting." the first finished with a laugh.

"Yes why not."

Feet were heard heading for the door.

"We can't let them leave." Ginny whispered, the twins nodded in agreement.

Turning to Neville and Luna, Hermione got their attention before jumping up and shouting:

"NOW!!"

The six sprang up, shooting a wide variety of curses at the Death Eaters, ranging from Reducto's to cutting curses.

Five immediately fell as the curses hit, the rest of the Death Eaters dived for cover as an old fashion saloon duel started.

Using the tables as shields the two groups exchanged fire; a lucky shot by a Death Eater caught George as he moved out of cover to fire a curse, sending him tumbling to the ground.

Fred checked his pulse and nodded that he was ok before going back to cursing with a vengeance.

Another lucky shot caught Luna's wand arm, leaving her conscious but with a large gash just below her shoulder that started bleeding heavily.

Luckily the enemy were losing men, to the point where their numbers were about equal.

Hermione saw Fred pull an innocent looking pouch out of his jeans and start waving his wand over it.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, ducking as a familiar looking green curse as it passed over their heads.

"Miniature fireworks." He grinned "They explode over and over again for at least ten minutes. I'm removing the safety feature to stop them burning people and modifying them so instead of lots of small explosions they give off one big one."

When he finished he carefully opened the bag and told her to open her hand.

He very carefully poured some of the small round balls onto her palm before pouring the rest onto his own.

"Ginny." Whispered Fred "On my mark hit them with a sun beam spell."

"Sun beam spell?" asked Ginny "What good will that do?"

"It's a distraction." Fred grinned back before turning to Hermione "It will blind them, when they are distracted throw them as hard as you can at the Death Eaters. Do NOT drop them. Ready?"

"Ready."

"Ready."

"NOW!!"

Fred and Hermione watched through the gaps between the tables, waiting for their moment.

"LUMOS LUMEN!!" Ginny cried as the dazzling beams of light shot towards the Death Eaters.

They immediately recoiled, crying out in pain and shielding their eyes.

"Now Hermione!!"

As one, the pair stood and threw the small round balls at the Death Eaters.

"DOWN!!" Fred bellowed throwing himself and Hermione behind cover, just as the other side of the room was rocked by the detonation of over a dozen WWW Fireworks.

The room exploded with noise as the tables and chairs exploded and the bits of wood imbedded themselves in the walls and the tables in front of Hermione and the others.

After about twenty seconds the group dared to move.

Slowly standing, they pointed their wands at the location that the Death Eaters had been occupying.

In their place were a lot of small pieces of wood, a lot of smoke and ten badly injured people.

The five moved out from behind their tables to examine the scene.

"Not bad." Pondered Fred, deep in thought "We might be able to sell those to the Aurors as grenades if we tweak the power a bit."

"Don't move." Said a deep voice from behind them "Drop the wands."

No one moved for a second before they slowly obeyed, dropping them to the floor.

"Turn ar..."

The voice was interrupted by the sound of breaking glass followed shortly by a dull thud.

Turning around they saw Madam Rosmerta with a gash on her head, supporting herself against the bar with one hand and holding the remains of a bottle in her other.

A Death Eater was lying unconscious at her feet.

It looked like she had just regained consciousness.

She looked sadly at the bottle and sighed.

"That Fire Whiskey was over one hundred years old. What a waste."

"Thank you." Smiled Hermione.

"No one attacks my pub and gets away with it." She said firmly, giving the Death Eater at her feet a hard kick in the ribs.

"Sorry for destroying your pub Madam Rosmerta." apologized Fred.

"From what I have heard Mr Weasley," she smiled "You have easily enough to replace the furniture that explosion destroyed."

They didn't get the chance to say more as more screams were heard from the street.

"Go and help." She instructed "I'll take care of the others and send them out to help if I can."

Giving her a quick nod, Hermione, Neville, Ginny and Fred ran out into the street, leaving Madam Rosmerta and an injured Luna to take care of the others.

* * *

Buffy was running, screams and shouts could be heard from the direction of the pub that she had left Adam and those brothers of Ron and Ginny in.

Sprinting around the corner she stopped dead at the sight that greeted her.

Opposite the pub was a large group of panicking students and shoppers in a tight panicking ball.

They were being shot at by at least twenty Death Eaters who were surrounding them, herding them together, the only delay being a few older students and shoppers who were doing their best to defend the panicking mass.

Just outside of the pub Hermione, Ginny, one of the twins and a few others who were pinned up against the wall by yet more Death Eaters.

Herding in anyone who tried escape the two groups were a large number of vampires (which gave Buffy the impression that the heavy cloud blocking out the sun wasn't entirely natural)

But what really surprised her was at the near end of the street, blocking her way, ranging from between thirty centimetres to over five meters in length, were literally hundreds on snakes

"Snakes!" she exclaimed "Why does it always have to be snakes?"

Buffy could see that Hermione and Ginny had been separated from the rest of those emerging from the pub, whose numbers were increasing as more joined the fight from inside, most appeared to be sporting injuries.

* * *

Ginny was literally frozen to the spot, she hated snakes, her incident with the Chamber of Secrets had left her with a terrible fear of them, she didn't even like boomslang skin in potions.

After the incident itself her memories had started to return, she remembered entering the chamber, releasing the Basilisk; those memories still haunted her dreams.

One of the larger snakes turned towards her and Hermione.

It opened its jet black mouth threateningly.

Ginny had done a lot of research into snakes after her first year in attempt to remove her fear but it only succeeded in increasing it, she recognised it as a Black Mamba, one of the most deadly snakes in the world; you REALLY did not want to get bitten by one.

The snake slithered towards them making her try to force herself even further into the wall.

Hermione attempting to get around behind the snake but it lunged in her direction every time she tried to move and at the moment she obviously could not think of the right spell to use.

While Hermione was pondering, Buffy had drawn her wand and a small dagger (heaven knows where she was hiding it), had leapt along the shop window sill to avoid the swarm of snakes and had come up behind the Mamba.

She grabbed at the snakes tail and gave it a sharp pull before jumping back, barely dodging the snakes strike.

She lined up to attack it with her dagger when a cry went up from further down the street, turning she saw a vampire taking a hold of a student and exposing her neck.

"Go...get the vampires!" Hermione shouted, moving around the snake so that she could draw it away from the terrified Ginny "I can take care of the snake, they need you."

Buffy looked back at them for a second before nodding and taking off down the street.

* * *

Watching Buffy go, Hermione mirrored her earlier action and grabbed the snake's tail before rapidly jumping back as the snake spun round and started following her movements, they watched each other as though it was a western shoot out.

"Incendio!" Hermione cried.

The flame shot out and collided with the snakes head

It hissed out, but shook the flames off and then continued towards Hermione.

If Hermione swore this would be the time when she would do it, her spell had no effect.

* * *

Buffy ran down the street, and literally jumped on the nearest two vampires, decapitating them with her dagger.

Swinging around to her left, she used her wand like a stake and plunged it into the back of the vampire whose fangs had just penetrated the female student's neck.

In one movement she grabbed the girl and barrelled into the nearest Death Eater just as he was bringing his wand to bear upon her.

This left a hole in their ranks that people poured out of.

Dropping the girl into an older students arms, she turned to deal with the next vampire. He was big, she'd never take him down without her slayer strength, she'd have to try a new method.

"Lacarnum Inflamare!!"

Flames shot out the end of her wand, engulfing the vampire and burning him to a cinder.

"My god, this wand is powerful," she exclaimed looking at the instrument in question "That's supposed to be a weak spell."

The vampire crumbled and she turned to find her facing four more, all rather heavily built; there was no way she could take on those odds.

"Incendio."

A streak of flame shot past her engulfing one of the four.

Turning she saw that many of the students and shoppers that had been in the crowd had now rallied and were lined up behind her, only the odd one or two were cowering in alleys, but at least fifteen were behind her, she turned back grinning.

"Let's warm things up."

Spells erupted from wands; the air was alive with fire, in less than ten seconds there were no vampires left, just many large piles of dust.

But that still left the snakes and the Death Eaters who had surrounded the crowd, blocking both ends of the street.

They were outnumbered badly, Hermione was still dealing with the snake in front of Ginny and where the rest of the Gryffindor three and the Professors were, no one knew.

"Attack!" screeched a female voice from underneath one of the Death Eater masks.

"Shields!" called one of the Weasley twins from somewhere at the head of the mass of students.

That turned out to be a bad call as three of the incoming spells were green.

Three of the shoppers dropped to the ground, which seemed to do very little for the confidence of the crowd.

Buffy stared as the bodies dropped, before turning back towards the Death Eaters, a look of determination on her face.

The nearest three Death Eaters never knew what hit them as a dagger sliced into their extended wand hands, shortly followed by a domino knockout when the first was kicked in the side of the head and the kick forced his head into his neighbour and both knocked out the third.

Buffy then spun around to kick at the next slightly shorter Death Eater but before her foot connected she found herself lifted off the ground.

"Hey! What the...?"

A shrill cackle emerged from behind the Death Eaters mask.

"Is the poor little Slayer a little...high?"

The Death Eater waved a hand in front of her face turning her mask and robe turned to smoke, revealing a thin woman dressed in a black dress that was practically a corset with a long skirt with a split sown on the bottom, her skin was pale and her face was worn holding a pair of deep crazed eyes.

"Maybe she'd like to go for a little ride." She cackled before flicking her wand skyward.

Buffy did not even have time to get in a witty retort before she flew up into the air.

"Buffy!!" she heard called from the ground, but she it was barely audible above the whistling of the wind as she was floated upwards.

"Oh, this is high. This is very high."

She slowing down several hundred feet over Hogsmeade giving her an excellent view of Hogwarts and the surrounding country side.

Unfortunately she was not in a position to appreciate the view as she hung in the air the same way that bricks don't before starting to drop.

"This one's going to hurt!!" she screamed as she hurtled towards the ground.

She dropped, hurtling through the air.

Three hundred feet.

Two hundred feet.

One hundred feet.

As she neared the ground something grabbed her.

* * *

"Professor Summers!!" shouted Neville as the battle raged around him, too distracted trying to think of a way to save the rapidly descending Professor to even notice the number of near misses that Fred and a recently healed George Weasley had saved him from.

Cushioning charms would not work and neither would levitation charms, she was falling too fast.

She was going to die.

He watched helplessly as she fell down below the levels of the buildings, accompanied by the mad cackling of Bellatrix Lestrange.

He did not want to watch but he could not look away.

Then it happened.

With less than ten metres to go, she was hit at high speed by something that appeared to be a cross between a bird and an MD Professor.

The animal or person wrapped its wing like arms around her protectively and together they tumbled sideways through the air due to the male Professor's momentum, sending them crashing through the wall of the Hogs Head, taking most of the front wall with them.

The sound of many pieces bits of breaking wood followed as they came to a stop, accompanied by the groaning of the wood from the upper floors at having to support their weight on only three walls.

"Neville. Snap out of it!" Shouted Fred, elbowing him in the side, jolting him back to the matter at hand, he just prayed the Professors where ok.

Curses were flying, bodies were falling, and people were beginning to panic. The snakes were impervious to almost everything as the continued ever onwards, forcing the students and other shoppers closer to the Death Eaters.

Then all of a sudden Bellatrix raised her hand and everyone and everything stopped.

"Potter..." she said in a slightly manic sing song voice whilst walking around the street "Come out, come out where ever you are. I know your there."

She continued walking around, walking straight through the two rows of pointed wands and back to her starting position in the middle of the pack of Death Eaters.

"If you surrender, we will let the others live Potter...Their lives are in your hands."

There were a few seconds of silence, in which Neville subtly squeezed his Alliance Ring.

There was a minutes silence as the two sides faced off against each other, the only sound being the slight rustle of peoples clothes and the odd snake hiss.

"Come out Potter, you are running out of time."

"Looking for me Trixie?"

Lestrange developed an evil grin before slowly turning to the source of the voice.

* * *

Harry and Fleur stood on the other side of the group of Death Eaters, they had been unaware of the attack until Neville's message had alerted them, apparently the Death Eaters had put silencing charms around the area of attack though the smoke rising from the Three Broomsticks was obvious when you were out in the street.

Fleur currently had her wand out and was pointing it at the group of Death Eaters, several of whom had turned their wands on the pair, while Harry stood calmly, his wands still in his pockets.

"Potter." Bellatrix smiled manically "Its ssssooo good to seeee you."

"Likewise." He returned pleasantly.

"Did you come to play?" she grinned "I see you bought your pet pigeon for dinner. I do like to play with my food before I eat it."

"Sorry Trixie." He replied "I'm the only one allowed to play with her."

He heard Fleur laugh slightly behind him.

"Are you going to surrender Potter?"

"Why would I do that?"

"Because you are a hero Potter, you save lives and by giving up you will save all these people."

Harry thought for a moment.

"I will tell you what;" he smiled "I will surrender to you, if you cast Cruciatus Curse on me and make me drop to the ground."

"What!"

"Arry!"

"No Harry!"

Came voices from several quarters.

"You want me to cast the torture curse on you?" asked Bellatrix excitedly "I agree."

Harry moved his hands out to the sides.

"Then go ahead then."

She pointed her wand.

"Harry no!!!"

"CRUCIO!!!"


	84. CH84 Fangs, Fangs And More Fangs

Chapter 84 – Fangs, Fangs And More Fangs

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:24__th__September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogsmeade_

_Time:Early Afternoon_

"Then go ahead then."

She pointed her wand.

"Harry no!!!"

"CRUCIO!!!"

There was a rush of movement as several people tried to intervene.

Fleur, Neville, Luna and the Weasley twins all moved to stop the curse.

Fleur launched herself at Harry, intent on knocking him out of the way, only for him to move his arm in her direction causing her to be pushed back by what appeared to be gust of wind.

While simultaneously Neville and Luna fired Reducto's at Bellatrix through the line of Death Eaters who cast shielding spells to block their path and returned fire only for their spells to impact the shields of the twins.

But the cry of pain that went up, although very brief stopped all movement in the street.

As the voice was not male.

Bellatrix had dropped to the floor as the curse rebounded on her, although its effects only lasted a second the force behind the spell was obviously great.

"Wow Bellatrix," smiled Harry "That was powerful; I had no idea you wanted to hurt me so much."

"H...How...How did you..." she tried panicked.

"I am Baron Harry James Black; I am therefore your Head of House, I have also been doing research. Have you forgotten the rules of your birth family? 'No member of the Black family, whether born or granted the name by legal methods can attack or harm the Head of the Black family without prior permission front said Head of House.' In other words, to you Bellatrix Black Lestrange, I am invincible."

Fear and comprehension crossed her features as she realised she could do nothing against him.

"Just be thankful that Sirius didn't exactly agree with your families values," Harry continued, his grin growing more and more evil by the second "If he had not, his father would not have removed the obedience clause from the Black family charter in the event that Sirius inherited the position."

Harry had been slowly advancing on Bellatrix since the curse back fired, now he was right in front of her.

He knelt down and leaned in towards her, his stare fixed on the panicked look in her eyes.

"You should thank him..." he whispered, leaning in so his mouth was close to her ear "If it were not for that..." he rested a hand on her leg where it extended through the split in her skirt "I could order you do..." he trailed the hand slowly up her leg "ANYTHING...I wanted."

Bellatrix had been almost cowering under him with fear up until that point, but the last statement caused two things to happen. Her expression first turned to one of utter terror at what that could have meant for her, followed very rapidly by a realisation of the position that she was currently in.

This resulted in her expression changing to one of anger before she rapidly pushed him of her with a growl, recovered her wand stood up and barked out her orders.

"Don't just stand there!! Kill them!!!"

All the Death Eaters raised their wands; growls were heard above them as the wands were aimed, looking up Harry saw at least two dozen vampires on the roofs of the shops.

Where was a Vampire Slayer when you needed her?

* * *

When Buffy came around the first thing she noticed was the splitting head ache she had. 

That was followed immediately by the realisation that she was a walking, or rather lying bruise.

Creeping her eyes open she saw that she was covered in cuts and bruises and had several pieces of wood puncturing her skin, not enough to do any real damage but enough to hurt...a lot.

Looking around she realised that she was surrounded by further pieces of broken wood, though of a larger size.

She guessed she was in some kind of building as she could see a horizontal piece of wood above her.

A familiar face swam into view.

"Easy, remain still."

"Professor Dumbledore?" she asked.

He gave a slightly chuckle.

"Dumbledore yes, Professor no."

"Huh?"

"Do not worry." He smiled "Just stay still."

She heard the cracking and shifting of wood to her left and turned in time to see Hogwarts resident Werewolf and Ron climbing over a large pile of debris to reach her.

"Buffy, are you alright?" asked Remus.

"Felt better." She groaned as she attempted to stand up, only to stop when pain exploded from her side, looking down she noticed that she had landed right on the edge of a spike of broken wood that looked to have been part of a stair case, that had sliced through her side, leaving a gash about an inch into her side.

But oddly, the spike was extending out of something soft.

"I thought Aberforth told you to stay still." Chastised Remus.

Ignoring this she very carefully, but nonetheless painfully turned to see that the spike was extending through the side of Adam's body just below his ribs, He had another broken piece of wood through his opposite shoulder, somehow he was conscious and not shouting out in pain.

"Oh God Adam. Are you alright?" she gasped moving off of him to lie on her good side.

"Do I look it?" He groaned as Ron and Remus hurdled the last piece of debris.

"Stay still." Commanded Aberforth as he drew his wand and began casting charms on the pair "Professor Summers, you will be ok as soon as we stop the bleeding. Adam you are not to move until Madam Pomfrey gets down here with blood clotting and blood restoration potions."

"I'm going to have to disagree with you there." Groaned Adam, reaching a hand over his body and taking a hold of the end of the piece of wood penetrating his shoulder.

"Professor, what are you?"

"He's not planning to..."

"He is." Buffy and Aberforth corrected just as Adam wrenched the piece of wood from his shoulder, breaking the other end off of the remains of the banister rail behind his back that the wood was attached to.

"Are you insane?" asked Ron.

"Probably." Adam nodded as he repeated the procedure with the piece of wood in his side, before attempting to sit up.

"For god sake, stay still or you will bleed out." Exclaimed Remus.

"No...I...wont." he gasped as he reached a sitting position, the blood flowing out of his wounds like rivers.

Leaning heavily on one hand he placed his other over his shoulder wound before it began to glow.

After a few seconds and a loud groan the light faded to reveal repaired skin.

"Merlin!!" exclaimed Remus.

"Fascinating." Added Aberforth.

Adam repeated the procedure with his side before turning to Buffy who was pressing her hand as hard as she could against her injury.

"Move your hand Buffy." He instructed, moving his hand over her wound.

His hand started to glow as it came in contact with her skin causing her to gasp.

Once his hand was removed her skin was also healed.

"Truly incredible." Smiled Aberforth.

"I just accelerated the natural healing function of Buffy's body. You will still feel drained though so don't overdo it."

"How did you come to be hurtling into the Hogs Head anyway?" asked Ron.

Buffy looked confused for a moment before her eyes widened in shock.

"Oh God. The battle. We've got to help."

"Battle!!" exclaimed Ron "What battle?"

"That battle." Replied Adam, gesturing out through the broken front of the pub.

Following his line of sight the others could see what appeared to be Harry crouched over someone. Fleur was on one side of him, and on the other side, in groups, where Death Eaters, students, shoppers and Hogsmeade residence and lastly snakes.

"That does not look like much of a battle to me." Commented Buffy.

"I agree," nodded Aberforth standing up a look of determination on his face "But where Death Eaters are involved you never know."

"Agreed." Nodded Remus, standing up beside him, drawing his wand "Ron, stay here with Adam and Buffy until I can send help."

"You really think that I am going to sit around while there is a battle going on less than ten meters away?" Buffy asked, standing painfully and recovering her wand and dagger which had got thrown from her hands in the landing.

"Likewise." Agreed Adam, standing and summoning his staff out of the debris.

"You two are not exactly at your strongest right now." Countered Remus.

"We were not exactly weak to start with." Returned Buffy.

They did not get a chance to say more as the woman under Harry climbed to her feet after throwing him away from her and shouting something to the other Death Eaters who immediately began cursing.

"There must be localised silencing charms around the area." Concluded Remus as he ran out into the street, followed closely by the others.

* * *

Neither Draco nor Narcissa expected to see what they did when they turned the corner back into the main street of Hogsmeade. 

"What in Merlin's name?!" exclaimed Draco.

The other end of the street appeared to be utter chaos; there were curses and people flying in all directions.

"When did that start?"

"It won't matter to you Malfoy." Commanded a voice from behind him. Turning he discovered that a wand was pointed at his head, on the other end of it was a Death Eater, whose voice identified him as Nott "As you won't be around to see it."

A curse emerged from the alleyway that he had just exited, sending Nott's wand flying away from him.

"Do not touch my son." Order Narcissa as she calmly walked out of the alley, her wand in her hand, she must have ducked back in there when she had seen the Death Eaters, it would have been better if she had not been seen, but it was too late for that now "Run along now."

Nott looked from her face to her wand then back to her face.

"You will pay for this Narcissa."

"Was that a threat?" Snarled Draco pointing his own wand at Nott.

Nott turned to look at him and glared.

"You will both pay." He growled before turning and running from Hogsmeade.

As soon as he disappeared from sight Narcissa turned to her son.

"Are you alright Draco?"

"Of course mother." He smiled before taking a look at the battle raging further down the street "Shall we lend a hand?"

* * *

There was carnage, there were curses flying in every direction. 

The large battle had been divided into several smaller groups which were battling around each other.

The main mass of Death Eaters were focusing their fire on Harry and Fleur who were fighting furiously against the large mass, taking down the odd enemy whenever they got the chance in between ducking, dodging and shielding.

Bellatrix and two other Death Eaters were battling against the Weasley twins who were fighting furiously against the trio to stop them reaching Hermione and Ginny who were still up against the wall with the snake, the only reason the twins were still standing was because of their wide variety of fireworks and other magical pranking material they had with them which were providing quite the distraction for their opponents.

The main body of students and shoppers were in a tight circle facing outwards against the Vampires who were trying to surround them without being hit by all the curses being thrown their way, creating a stalemate with neither side making much progress against the other.

And lastly a recently arrived Draco and Narcissa Malfoy were distracting the snakes, drawing them away from the crowds. Or to be more accurate, they were cursing them rather ineffectually with only cutting curses doing them any sort of harm, which meant aiming carefully and shooting at them in ones and twos while the rest advanced towards them.

"This does not seem to be going well." Commented Draco in between curses.

"Evidently." His mother replied, in between using blasting hexes to send the snakes back a few feet in order to give them more time to curse them.

The tables seemed to turn when the call of:

"Dumbledore's here!!"

Went up.

Glancing around Draco was able to see who appeared to be the Headmaster near the Hogs Head, accompanied by the Werewolf, Professor Summers and Professor Berio; the latter two appeared to be injured, though this did nothing to stop their effectiveness in the battle.

The Headmaster headed for Potter and his Veela, taking the pressure off of them, the Slayer headed for the vampires, using her wand both for spells and for use as a stake, the Werewolf headed for the Weasley twins who were trying to defend someone though he could not tell whom from that psychotic aunt of his, while The Guardian drew a long curved sword out of the air by his side and ran in their direction.

In a very careful movement he flipped over the swarm of snakes, decapitated four of the snakes that tried to strike at him and clubbing another on the back of the head with his staff before landed next to Draco.

"Mr Malfoy, Mrs Malfoy, how has your day been?"

"Entertaining Professor Berio," She replied, blasting another group of snakes back "Entertaining."

Bringing his staff to bare, he forced the end hard against the ground creating an effect similar to a hard blast of air, blowing all the snakes in front of them back several feet.

He followed that up by flipping his staff around directing the top at the snakes, levitated them up several feet, before bringing his staff rapidly up and around in an arc, catapulting the snakes away and deep into the forest.

"Most effective." Smiled Narcissa.

"Those snakes are all magical; they should dissipate before they find their way out of there."

"Now for the rest."

"NO ONE MOVE!!!"

* * *

Harry, Fleur and who Harry guessed was probably Dumbledore's brother (judging from the fact that his aura was not as powerful as it should have been) had been separated when four vampires managed to get in between Harry and the pair, leaving the others to deal with the Death Eaters while the vampires stalked around him., trying to get to him before he could bring his wand to bare. 

He held them off successfully for several minutes, even managing to kill one of them with a flame charm until he felt something on his leg.

It was just enough of a distraction to cause him to look down.

He barely got a glance in at the snake coiled around his ankle before the vampires pounced.

One grabbed his arm, wrenching his wand out of his grip, another grabbed his other arm, whilst a third grabbed his throat and the final vampire got him from behind and bared his neck to its teeth.

"NO ONE MOVE!!!" growled one of those holding his arms "Unless you want your saviour here, to be drained dry."

Everyone stopped, very little had changed for the last five minutes, Buffy and the main body of students and shoppers were still keeping the rest of the vampires at bay, though there were several more piles of ash on the ground thanks to Buffy's efforts.

Hermione, the Twins, Ginny and Remus were still pinned down by the small group of Death Eaters including Bellatrix and the large snake that still seemed immune to anything Hermione or Remus threw at it.

Aberforth and Fleur were faced off against the rest of the Death Eater mob, both sporting several injuries, though their opponents were hardly unscathed either.

And lastly at the other end of the street stood Adam, Malfoy and Mrs Malfoy, presumably as there was no sign of them, after finishing off the snakes.

Bellatrix and several members of the other team cackled or laughed at Harry's predicament.

"Well, well, well. Not so powerful after all are we Potter." She grinned, walking over to him and grabbing his chin "The Dark Lord has some unfinished business with you."

She spun around to face the crowd.

"Everyone stand together or my bloodsucking friend here is going to feast."

"Do it." Ordered Aberforth after several seconds, most still thought he was the Headmaster so immediately obeyed.

The teachers, students and shoppers all started to move towards each other into one large group.

"Not you." Hissed Bellatrix, pointing her wand at Hermione and Ginny when they tried to move away from the snake "You stay there. Now everyone throw your wands and other weapons away now."

There was again a moment's hesitation before wands started hitting the ground.

"Well done." She beamed excitedly, before turning to the vampire holding his neck "Ok, now you can eat him."

The cries of shock and alarm that went up were missed by Harry as a pair of fangs sunk into his neck.


	85. CH85 The Element Of Fire

Chapter 85 – The Element Of Fire

FLASHBACK

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:Unknown_

_Country:Unknown_

_Location:Unknown_

_Time:An Eternity In A Second_

"You really know how to choose your training locations don't you." Panted Harry "You couldn't have chosen somewhere slightly hotter by any chance?"

"Only if you want to be inside the volcano rather than just standing on its edge." Replied Adam dryly "I don't think you need to ask what element you will be practicing next."

Harry glanced around at the ground they were standing on; one side was an ash covered slope while the other was a smoking volcano caldera.

"I could hazard a guess that it may be fire."

"And you would be right. Fire is the hardest element to master as it is only destructive in nature, all the other elements can be constructive. Water, air and earth are all part of nature's growth efforts but the only way fire is constructive is the effects of the ash after it has destroyed what was there before. Again, like with the other elements you need to force the element to do what you want," explained Adam "Thusly."

Turning to the volcano Adam created a ball of fire out of the air before firing it as a stream of fire towards the other side of the volcano, charring the rock where it hit.

He then proceeded to create another ball of fire and start floating it around him, directing it with his finger tips.

"Before you ask, I am not using magic to float the fireball, just elemental skill."

He summoned the ball back to his hand, before placing his other over it and pulling it apart so that the ball expanded to several times its original size.

"Control over fire means many things," he continued, shrinking the ball back to its original size before letting it drop to his hand and continue to burn upwards like a normal flame "You can control its size, its temperature, the force behind the flame."

He demonstrated by making the flame turn blue as it increased in temperature and making it burn harder as if out of the end of a rocket before returning it to its original state.

"You also have the ability to alter temperature and manipulate the fire in almost any way you want."

END FLASHBACK

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:24__th __September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogsmeade_

_Time:Afternoon_

"Not you." Hissed Bellatrix, pointing her wand at Hermione and Ginny when they tried to move away from the snake that had cornered the pair "You stay there. Now everyone throw your wands and other weapons away now."

There was again a moment's hesitation before wands started hitting the ground, Harry knew no matter what he said they would ignore him and do it anyway.

Taking a chance Harry flexed the fingers of his hand, before drawing them back and squeezing them into a fist, putting pressure on his Alliance ring, sending the message that he wanted before relaxing his fingers, making it look like nothing more than a stretch to the vampires holding him.

Hopefully she was nearby.

"Well done." Bellatrix beamed excitedly, before turning to the vampire holding his neck "Ok, now you can eat him."

The cries of shock and alarm that went up were missed by Harry as a pair of fangs sunk into his neck and his eyes opened wide in shock.

The first thing he noticed was that it was not so much painful after the initial bite, but more tiring and draining...literally.

The unusual sensation cursed through him as his life's blood was pulled from his body.

The world seemed to slow and blur as the liquid of existence left him and he was barely aware of it when the vampire on his left cried out in pain, proceeded by a slight pulling sensation on the back of his hand, the Death Eater on his right keeled forward as something with wings flew into the back of its head, a stake impacted the chest of the vampire in front of him, dusting him instantly and as the tight grip around his leg was released.

The crowd of students, teachers and shoppers charged the Death Eaters, ignoring the fact that most were unarmed as they were unable to cast wandless charms to recover their weapons.

It took a good two seconds for him to comprehend what was going on before the world started making sense.

His arms were free, he could move and what is more, he could save himself.

In a swift movement he clenched his body and curled his head and chest downwards.

He gave off a gasp as the vampire's teeth were pulled backwards through his skin, tearing two long gashes before disengaging as the blood sucker went hurtling over him and landed on its back.

He was instantly on the move, his wand was around somewhere, probably with one of the vampires and no one other than a select few knew about his fathers, so he would have to use different tactics.

Rolling to his feet, he placed one hand over his neck to pressure his wound; the last thing he needed was to bleed out in the middle of a battle but he was aware that he was fading fast.

Continuing his movement he took a half running, half staggering step past the vampire he had flipped. Holding his other hand over the creature he in one swift movement created and blasted a fireball into the beast, incinerating it before it could even regain its feet.

He tried to take another step but his legs dropped out from under him, causing him to land hard on the ground.

"Arry!" cried Fleur as she and Remus reached him, she was already unsteady on her feet because of his weakened state. She dropping to the ground beside him while Remus stood guard over them.

She rolled him over so he was on his back looking up at her.

His eyes were rolling slightly but his hand was still clamped down hard upon his neck, though blood was flooding from the wound.

Someone of in the distance, possibly Aberforth called out "Remus! Put this on his neck and make him drink the rest!" this was followed shortly by the Professor in question dropping down beside him with a vial in his hand.

"Stay with us Harry." He ordered while uncorking the small vial of clear liquid and following the instructions given to them.

Harry's vision and hearing were beginning to fade, he was vaguely aware of Neville and Luna moving to either side of him, wands out to protect those on the ground, but Harry saw no more as his vision completely failed and he passed out.

* * *

Fleur watched half terrified as Harry lost consciousness, the drops of liquid on Harry's neck had just healed the artery that had been punctured and had done a bit more on healing the wounds before it lost effectiveness leaving two relatively deep but luckily not fatal gashes on his neck, blood still oozed from them but only just, though he had already lost a lot of blood.

"Arry!" she gasped.

"He will be alright!" called Aberforth as he faced off against three Death Eaters "The rest that he drank will keep him going and will restore some of his blood; he should be conscious again in minutes."

"Let's get him inside." Called Remus as he heaved him up into his arms and headed for the Three Broomsticks, Neville and Luna providing cover fire as they went.

* * *

Draco was annoyed...Draco was actually genuinely annoyed, and what was annoying him most was the fact that he was annoyed by the fact that Potter had been injured. Potter of all people, simply because he knew Ginny would be upset.

And what made it worse was that the redhead in question was pinned to a wall by a snake that just refused to be affected by anything, even the blasting and cutting hexes that had killed some of the other snakes had no affect and they just bounced of despite Granger's best efforts.

He had managed to make his way over to the pair who were still being covered by Ginny's twin brothers who were once again fighting his psychotic aunt.

Sending a punching hex at the snake he slammed its head into the wall, dazing it.

"Now Granger!!" he shouted as the girl in question grabbed a hold of Ginny and wrenched her away from the wall, but more importantly, away from the snake before it could recover from the impact strike.

He never got the chance to say more as he was almost shaken off his feet by an explosion to his left.

Turning he saw that the twins had both been knocked unconscious by Bellatrix who was now advancing on them, as was the annoyed snake.

"Come here poppet." She smiled, grinning inanely at Ginny.

The trio backed up as his aunt and the legless reptile moved towards them, Ginny was still quivering in fear at the snake, if it weren't for the dammed thing she would be a lot more useful, he had seen how powerful her curses could be, everyone had a weakness, but for now she was still hiding behind him and Granger.

Him and Granger, that's something he never would have thought he'd say.

"You get the snake," he told the brunette "We've got her."

Accepting the decision immediately the Mud...Muggle Born nodded to him and started drawing the snake away from them, down a nearby alley.

"You really think you can beat me Drakey?" Bellatrix laughed.

"On my own," he replied as calmly as he could "Probably not, but with the snake gone Miss Weasley here no longer has anything to fear, from it."

This was demonstrated a split second later when a blasting hex hit the ground next to Lestrange, knocking her off of her feet.

"As was just proved." Ginny added, the look on her face was downright dangerous. Whether it was because of how useless she felt when she was up against the snake, how angry she was that she had done nothing or how pissed she was at Lestrange for even setting the thing on her, he really did not want to know, but one thing Draco did know was that Lestrange was going to pay for it.

The pair started throwing hex after hex at the witch, who barely had time to scramble backwards and start blocking the spells before they reached her.

"How do you like it aunt when you can be out fought by two teenagers?" asked Draco in between curses.

Two well synchronized bludgeoning hexes knocked her wand from her hand and sent her back to the floor with a grunt as she hit the hard path.

Draco summoned her wand to his hand as she scrambled after it, before pointing both wands at her.

"On the floor three times in one day aunt, what does that feel like?"

He never got an answer as the ground started to shake.

"What is that?" asked Ginny looking around, trying to see what was causing the tremor, but from the way that Bellatrix had started cackling again, it couldn't be good.

Most of the fighting had stopped as people tried to figure out what was going on, the Death Eaters and remaining vampires were using it as a distraction to regroup.

The answer came about five seconds after the shaking had begun when a loud rumbling sound originated from the direction of the Hogs Head followed by an almighty sound somewhere between a crash and an explosion.

Spinning around the residence and guests of Hogsmeade were greeted by the sight of a wide (at least six feet in diameter) and very very long body extending out of the wreckage of the Hogs Head, following the body to its termination they were able to see the head of a very large Basilisk.

"Oh bloody hell."

* * *

Fleur, Remus, Neville and Luna emerged from the pub as the ground started shaking to see the towering mass of serpent burst through the rival pub.

"That's not good." Said Neville flatly.

"I think that's the understatement of the year." She replied.

"Look at its eyes." Said Luna's dreamy voice.

"DON'T LOOK AT ITS EYES!!" countered Remus.

Fleur already had.

"No she's right, look." She said, pointing at the objects in question.

Obviously realising that the others were still breathing Remus followed their line of sight.

In place of its eyes, the Basilisk had two metal spheres which appeared to have the Dark Mark engraved upon them, obviously some form of control.

"Well that's one bit of good luck." He sighed, just as the Basilisk roared, swung its head down and devoured a shopper whole.

"I think you spoke too soon Remus." Replied Fleur "I'll distract it while you get everyone clear."

Pocketing her wand she took a running jump and despite her weakened state, launched herself into the air as she transformed and flew at the beast.

"Everybody get to cover!!" she heard Remus yell as she conjured a fireball and launched it at the creature.

* * *

"Why," curse "Why," another curse "Oh why," stake "Does it always have to be SNAKES!!" bellowed Buffy in between fighting "Weren't the little ones enough."

"Obviously not." Replied the Dumbledore look-a-like as they cleared a path for the civilians to get to cover "But as long as Miss Delacour can keep the Basilisk occupied until we can get everyone to cover and until reinforcements arrive we will be alright."

"How will we be alright against THAT!" she exclaimed, ducking a vampires fist (more of them kept showing up from somewhere) "Last time I took on something that large it took a school blowing up to kill it."

"Then I believe Mr Potter has one up on you, he managed to kill a slightly smaller one with a sword."

"That one was blind, I know all about the trip into the Chamber thing," shield, flame curse "Ron and Hermione filled me in and encase you did not notice I do not happen to have a sword on me."

She ducked and rolled to dodge a pair of curses from the remaining Death Eaters, most were now lying on the ground, in various forms of unconsciousness "Only one dagger, three stakes and a very sharp knife...And you don't want to know where I'm keeping the knife."

"Probably not." He agreed, launching a blasting hex at a vampire, dusting it upon impact.

Most of the population had made their way to the end of the village by this point, turning back, Buffy saw that the Basilisk was still half in the hole it had emerged from, snapping at the bird like form flapping around its head and throwing fireballs at it, some of the strikes were far too close for her liking, one bite and Fleur would be gone.

"Get them to safety." She called, stopping and running back in the direction they came "I will help our feathered friend."

"Be careful." He called as he followed the students, shoppers and residence out of the village and to safety "I will try and get some reinforcements."

Se barely heard the last bit as she drew her dagger and threw it as hard as she could at the serpent, but considering the size of the thing it did not even notice the eight inch dagger that impaled it in between some of its scales.

Running up to the snake (that had not even noticed her attack) she twisted her dagger (with some difficulty, the scales were tightly packed and without Slayer strength the dagger had a firm grip) to create a large hole before hauling it out.

Stepping back she aimed her wand at the hole (which the dagger had made by widening the wound, half tearing a scale out in the process) and shouted.

"Bombarder."

The Basilisk might not have felt the dagger, but it definitely felt a blasting hex hitting its unprotected skin at point blank range.

It reared up and roared in pain as the curse hit, creating a foot wide hole in its armoured hide, not to mention the even larger hole on its inside.

The snake spun around to look at her.

"Oh crap."

She dived to the left as it struck at her, its head smashing the brick paving where it impacted.

Rolling to her feet, she was forced into another immediately dive as the snakes head almost bit her legs off. Buffy was aware of fireballs impacting the beast but Fleur's attacks seemed to have no more effect than rain against skin.

"Where's Harry with a sword when you need him." She grunted between dodges.

"Right here." Came the reply.

Both Buffy and the Basilisk turned to the voice.

Standing in the door to The Three Broomsticks, leaning heavily against the frame with Madam Rosmerta and a few of the formerly wounded standing close behind him was Harry with a pair of rapier swords in his hands.

"Oh great," sighed Buffy "My knight in shining armour who can barely stand."

"Hey, be grateful I am here at all," he countered "I was tempted not to come, after all the rest of the wounded and myself were just left here when you all ran for it, only Fleur and Madam Rosmerta remained."

"Well while you are here could you possibly help out?"

The Basilisk suddenly seemed to realise that it had stopped attacking and sent another lunge at Buffy.

"Ahh." She cried as she threw herself sideways, hitting the ground awkwardly so the force went straight up her elbow "Well could you make your mind up quickly, before I get turned into an appetiser."

Harry was already on the move, running towards her. As the Basilisk went for another strike he threw one of his swords at the space between Buffy and the beast.

The sword, either by luck or skill reached the space between them just as the Basilisks open mouth passed through it, ready to snap Buffy's feet off, impaling itself in one of the Basilisks gums.

The Basilisk reared, sending the sword flying out of its mouth with the force of the move.

"MOVE!!" bellowed Harry as he ran past her, half a dozen of the wounded following him with their wands drawn, Harry's was on the ground somewhere where the vampire had ripped it out of his hand "Accio Harry Potter's wand!"

The object in question, flew towards him, he casually caught it after stowing his second sword back in its invisible sheave on his back before reaching down to grab his first as he passed where it had stuck in the ground.

"Blasting hexes!!" he shouted, just as Buffy joined them "Aim for the head and the hole in its side, spread out, don't let it come near you."

A barrage of hexes started raining down on the Basilisk, those not quite so good on their long distance cursing aiming for the hole, while those with the best aim fired at the head which was writhing around as each new curse hit.

"KEEP FIRING, KEEP FIRING!!!" Bellowed Harry as he stowed his wand and sword away and began swirling his arms around in circles.

* * *

Buffy had rejoined the group facing the Basilisk and being no quite skilled enough to hit a constantly moving head had opted to aim for the serpent's previous injury, which was now almost a meter and a half in diameter, but due to the burning affect of the hexes the wound was not allowing the creature to bleed out.

"Use cutting curses!" Called Fleur as she swooped down past her "Make it bleed out!"

Fleur quickly embraced Harry before drawing her wand and heading over to join Madam Rosmerta in The Three Broomsticks to guard any wounded left inside, the Death Eaters and remaining vampires may have left when the Basilisk appeared but that did not mean they were gone.

"You heard her!" shouted Buffy changing her spells so that the massive internal wound could bleed.

The Basilisk was continuing to attempt to strike at them but kept being forced back by the constant barrage, though obviously wounded the huge hole in its side barely seemed to faze it and the blasting hexes aimed at its head only did any damage when they impacted inside the mouth, the rest impacted harmlessly on its hard scales, having no more affect on the beast than stinging hexes.

What made it worse was that the blasting hexes were tiring out the group and even the massive lack of blood from the now gushing wound was not slowing it down.

Finding a gap in the fire the Basilisk dove its head towards them, several of the fighters dived for cover, but not because of the approaching teeth, but because of the massive flame that erupted from amongst the group, literally blasting the Basilisks head back with the force of the flame.

Looking around Buffy saw Harry seem to gather fire in his hand and send another blast at the creature.

"Is there no end to your talents?"

"That's for me to know," he gasped with great effort as he sent another blast of flame at the creature "And you to find out."

Buffy's senses tingled as she felt people approaching.

Spinning around and raising a wand, she let out a huge sigh of relief to see both Dumbledore's, Tonks, Colette, a lot of the other Hogwarts teachers and many of those who were in the group that left a few minutes ago running towards them.

"It's about time." She sighed "I thought the cavalry was supposed to make a timely entrance, we have had several major disasters."

"My apologise Buffy, we came as soon as we could." Replied the Headmaster as he approached and joined the cursing against the creature.

"The attack started ages ago, the entire town has been held up, I've been dropped from a great height, Harry was bitten by a vampire, Ginny and Hermione were almost bitten by a snake and I was almost shish kebab for that thing."

"Is everyone alright?" asked Colette, launching fireballs out of both hands at the Basilisks head.

"There are many wounded, including Ron's twin brothers, not to mention the fact that Harry can barely stand. Why did you take so long anyway? Couldn't you see the fire fight?"

"Actually no." answer Tonks "There were concealment charms over the village; luckily they only extended up ten meters."

"What about it." Buffy asked between curses.

"Well seeing a disembodied neck and head of a Basilisk extending out of thin air does tend to give the game away." Explained Tonks with a smile "The Headmasters brother's message spell arrived shortly after I reached the Headmasters Off..."

Tonks had trailed off because she had just seen Harry release another jet of flame at the Basilisk.

"Holy Merlin's suspenders." Exclaimed Colette "He's putting my fireballs to shame."

"How on Earth is he doing that!" shouted Ron as he Neville and Luna rejoined the fight, most of the DA were following them.

"I do not know," answered Aberforth Dumbledore "But it will be interesting to find out after we deal with the Basilisk."

"It should be dead already!" added Adam as he ran up beside them, waving his staff in a complicated pattern he created a ball of blue energy which he threw at the serpent, the impact was comparable to a high calibre shell being detonated "That injury you've made has almost cut right through it and the amount of blasting hexes it's been hit by would certainly have killed it. It has to be being magically controlled and strengthened by someone."

"Those medallions in its eyes are probably the key." Continued the Headmaster "We need to destroy them."

There was several seconds of silence, or rather lack of speaking, the sounds of the numerous blasting spells, roaring flames and wailing Basilisk still filled the air.

"I've got an idea!" exclaimed Buffy before turning to their resident pyromaniac "Harry!"

He spun his head to her.

"I need your swords!"

In a very quick motion he drew them both off of his back and threw them at her.

"Give me covering fire!" she shouted before taking a running forward.

"Buffy, what are you!" she heard one of the Dumbledore shout just before she took a running jump at the beast and dug the swords deep into its hide, several feet of the ground.

* * *

"She's not going to..." asked Neville.

"She is." Replied Ron as Buffy started using the swords to climb up the serpent, using them like ice picks to lift herself higher and highter.

"Stop firing at the head!!" ordered Adam "You might hit her, only aim for the wound!!"

All the wand users realigned their sights to aim at the wound, there were over thirty of them by now and the combination of over thirty curses every five seconds aimed at the wound rapidly resulted in a loud crack emanating from it.

"The spinal cords been severed!" shouted Tonks as the serpent began to wobble about "It can't hold itself up. RUN!!"

There was a made dash as the crowd ran to get out of the way of the toppling snake.

* * *

"OOOHHH SSSHHHIIITTT!!!" shouted Buffy as the Basilisk started to fall, why couldn't it have done this when she was at the bottom of its neck rather than the top, she had to hang on tight to the swords as they approached the ground.

At the last moment before impact she launched herself up into the air just before the serpent collided with the ground, allowing her to land gently on top of the still moving beast.

"How can this thing still be living, it's not even half the snake it used to be and it's still going."

She didn't wait for the reply as she withdrew her swords from the Basilisks neck, ran up the remaining five meters of neck and plunged both swords down through its eyes.

There was a bright flash of green light as the control devices shattered and exploded before the Basilisk stopped moving for good.

Staying seated for several seconds before slowly easing the swords out, getting up and jumping down.

"Well that was fun, who's up for round two?"

Most of the assembled group turned to look at her as if she had grown another head.

"What?" she shrugged "This was easy, it doesn't even count as an apocalypse."

After checking that the beast was finally dead, people started the clean up operation, healing those that needed to be healed, tying up any Death Eaters that had been incapacitated (the sun had started shinning almost as soon as the Basilisk was killed so the unconscious vampires were long gone, there was mostly quiet in the village until Buffy heard Ron's call out.

"Hermione?...HERMIONE!!"

Looking around Buffy could see no sign of the brunette, and judging by the looks on the faces of Ginny, Neville, Luna, Harry and Fleur nor could they.

"Over here!!" shouted Malfoy from the mouth of an alley, the group along with Professor Dumbledore, McGonagall, Adam and Mrs Malfoy headed towards them.

When Buffy reached the alley they saw Draco carrying the girl in question out into the light of the main street.

She was laying limp in his arms, she was pale, her body was covered in sweat, and her right arm was swollen up.

"She's been bitten by the snake." Draco explained placing her on the ground so that she could be examined.

Adam immediately dropped down beside her and began checking her over.

"What did the snake look like?" he asked though it sounded more like a demand.

"It was very big, greyish and had an ink black mouth." Replied Draco.

"A black...black mamba." Added Ginny worriedly. As she reappeared from the alley holding Hermione's wand and levitating what appeared to be a snake's skeleton quite a way in front of her.

"Not good." Muttered Adam, inspecting the puncture wounds "She has already slipped into a coma."

"Save her!!" demanded Ron, from her other side where he was holding her hand dangerously tight.

"You know I will do all I can Ron." He replied before turning around "Brian, Harry I need to borrow some power."

He extended his staff towards them which they understood to mean 'hold this'.

As soon as the pair touched the staff, both lurched as if someone was pulling at them from the inside, from what Buffy could see it looked comparable to being drained by a vampire, Harry must have felt terrible after being subjected to the feeling twice in one day.

The group watched as white wisps of power flowed from the pair, down the arms, into the staff, into Adam and then through his arm to his glowing hand which was held over the wound.

"Come on." He urged, forcing the light to become brighter.

Finally a black liquid began oozing its way out of the two bite marks on her swollen arm; the smell hit those surrounding them like a tonne of bricks.

Most recoiled, several had to cover their mouths to prevent them bringing up their last meal.

"That's not normal snake venom." Gasped Adam, trying to focus on the injury he was trying to heal.

After several minutes the wound started bleeding red as the last of the venom was removed, the swelling on Hermione's arm had gone down greatly and she seemed to be just sleeping rather than being comatose.

"She should be ok now." panted Adam as he dropped sideways to lie on the ground at the same time as Dumbledore and Harry were finally able to release the staff; both stumbled and were caught by Remus and Neville.

"That was exhausting." Stated Harry, dropping to the floor beside Adam, Fleur moved to the floor beside him, equally as exhausted due to their connection but doing her best not to show it.

"Your energy will return after some rest." Reassured Adam as he hauled himself up, using his staff to support him.

On the floor between them Hermione began to stir.

* * *

Slowly opening her eyes, the first thing Hermione noticed was how weak she felt.

The last thing she remembered was the snake biting her followed by pain and the sight of her muscles twitching out of her control, after that she must have passed out.

Looking up she saw Ron, Ginny and Buffy leaning over her looking relieved.

"You look like you've seen a ghost." she said jokingly.

"More like another giant snake." Buffy managed to say through her shock

"A BASILISK!!" Hermione shouted sitting up very rapidly which she immediately regretted as she was rewarded with a splitting headache.

Ginny shuddered at the word "Y...Yes" she said turning to where the snake was "As well as lots...of smaller snakes?"

"But they are all gone now, though you were almost killed by a smaller one." Added Buffy.

Hermione did not get the chance to say any more as Ron's relief broke through his restraint as he engulfed Hermione in a tight hug.

"Hermione, I'm so sorry, I'm sorry I tried to force Ginny and Draco apart, I'm sorry that I upset you in doing so and I'm sorry I let you get hurt. Please forgive me."

"Not so loud." Hermione pleaded clutching her head.

"Sorry." he apologised again leaning back to holding her face in his hands, his expression was scared, the most vulnerable she had ever seen him, as if her very words could break him "Please forgive me."

"I forgive you Ron." she smiled, realising that he had learnt his lesson from the prank earlier.

His facial expression instantly changed to one of relief at her words before he drew her into another hug.

_Thank god he's safe, wait…_

_Why is his arm..._

_BLOOD._

She drew back and looked at his right arm.

"You're bleeding." she said worried, Professor McGonagall knelt down next to him and began to examine his arm.

"Cutting curse." she concluded "Nothing serious, there are much worse injured around."

"What happened to Lestrange and the rest of the Death Eaters?" Hermione asked.

"They disappeared when the Basilisk showed up." Explained Harry.

"What did you say to her Lord Black?" asked Narcissa "I have not seen her look that scared since we were children."

"I told her what I would be able to do to her if it were not for Sirius's unpopular views." He replied giving a shudder "It almost make me sick thinking about what I was suggesting, but it was worth it to see the fear in her eyes when she realised that she could not harm me and that I had power over her."

"Did we lose anyone?" asked Hermione turning to the other Professors.

The event's that followed this question took less than a second to transpire:

Firstly Adam opened his mouth to answer.

Secondly he stopped and seemed to sense something.

Thirdly concern flashed across his face.

And fourthly he spun to his feet staff extended.

Before he had completely turned a bolt of green light hit him, it spun around him like electricity, engulfing him causing him to cry out in pain.

The others jumped back instinctively at the sight; about ten meters behind Adam stood James, dressed similarly to his brother, carrying what appeared to be an identical staff except that it was jet black including the crystal.

His face was covered with a smile, pleasure at seeing his brother's pain.

* * *

Buffy was in shock, where had he come from.

She turned back to Adam and saw a small flash of white light, only visible from her position behind him and even then she may have imagined it, the flash had come from the hand surrounding his staff, the flash was directed through the hand into the staff.

"Let him go!" Ginny screamed, running at The Guardian's brother.

"GINNY NO!" Draco and Ron both shouted.

James casually waved his hand to the side, sending the red head flying into the side of a nearby building, falling to the ground unconscious.

"GINNY!" Draco shouted as he ran past the group and along with Ron, Neville, Draco's mother and an exhausted Harry and Fleur, ran over to Ginny's still form.

The light around Adam intensified engulfing him until his convulsing form was not visible amongst the electric green light.

The light then shrank getting smaller but Adam didn't reappear out of the light.

The light became the size of a tennis ball; it then flew into James's waiting hand.

"Release him!" shouted Dumbledore bringing his wand to bear upon James and firing some unknown curse at the doppelganger.

Harry and Buffy joined the attack, Harry conjuring and throwing a fireball while Buffy threw a knife.

James raised a black misty shield that stopped Dumbledore's curse; Buffy's blade passed through it but was caught right out of the air, while Harry's fireball was deflected towards Buffy by James using the end of his staff like a Beaters bat.

Buffy went flying backwards as the fireball hit her, taking out most of the rest of the group still with Hermione as she went.

James then spun his staff around and fired two crackling red balls of light at Harry and Dumbledore, passing straight through their shields which were greatly weakened because of the fight and the recent power drain.

Both dropped to the floor, the red electricity crackled over them for a minute before dissipating, both looked alive but unconscious.

Narcissa, Draco, Ron and Neville were the next to move to attack James but were distracted when a loud cackling emanated from behind them.

Ron was nearest to the sound and as he spun around he received a hard kick to the chest, sending him back into the others, knocking them to the ground as well.

The group quickly recovered their feet but by then Bellatrix had moved over to stand next to James and what's more, in her arms she was holding the unconscious form of Ginny Weasley.

James grinned.

"This'll be fun."

With that the trio vanished in a flash of light, leaving nothing but the echoing sound of Lestrange's horrible laugh.

There was a dull thud and a ringing metal noise as Adams staff and his silver disk fell to the ground.


	86. CH86 The Balance Of Power

Chapter 86 – The Balance Of Power

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:29__th__September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogsmeade_

_Time:Late Afternoon_

There was silence

There was a deadly silence.

It wasn't that there was no sound.

This was anti-sound.

What you get when there is absolutely nothing.

No sound of breathing.

No bird song.

No sounds of wind rustling leaves.

Nothing.

Ron looked down to where Ginny had been lying.

He picked up her dropped wand and stared at it.

The silence was broken by a faint whisper from Draco.

"She's gone...she's gone."

His mother put her hand on his shoulder.

"It will be ok Draco."

He spun round so fast she nearly fell over in surprise.

"Ok...ok." Draco was getting more and more frantic by the second "O sodding K...SHE'S GONE...GONE!!!"

And as bad as his reaction may have seemed, it was a lot better than Ron's which only Neville noticed.

He started shaking violently collapsing to the ground dropping Ginny's wand.

"Ron...RON!!" Neville shouted trying to snap him out of it; he spun round to the Professor's "He's going into shock."

McGonagall ran over and bent over him drawing her wand.

"Glacialis."

Ron immediately stopped shaking and froze.

"I've put him in stasis," she explained turning back to the other group "Mr Longbottom levitate him back to school as quickly as you can, tell Madam Pomfrey what has happened."

Neville nodded before carrying out the instructions.

"Everyone else gather the injured together as well as any students still conscious," ordered Lupin "Tell them to get back to Hogwarts as quickly as they can and to take the injured with them, if the injuries are serious or if they have been bitten by either snake or vampire put a stasis charm on them."

Luna got up and did as ordered while Draco was pacing furiously behind his mother looking frantic.

Lupin got in front of him and grabbed his shoulders.

"Get out of my way." Malfoy barked.

"Malfoy, panicking will not solve anything; we need to plan our next move carefully."

Draco glared at him for a moment before nodding slowly, not wanting to risk a tussle with a werewolf.

"Alright," Remus then straightened and looked to Mrs Malfoy "Narcissa a pleasure to see you again."

"Likewise Remus."

Draco's attention snapped to them.

"You know each other?"

"Indeed." his mother replied.

"We were at school together," Remus explained "I was going to suggest you escort your son up to the school before making a discreet exit...I doubt your husband will be pleased to know that you were in Hogsmeade during the attack and even less so because you fought against the Death Eaters."

Their conversation wasn't the type you would have if you were trying to cover up your loathing for each, rather the type that says 'it has been too long' and 'last time we met it was under better circumstances'.

"If it's all the same to you Remus I think I better leave now, I will point out to Lucius that if I had sided with the Death Eaters I would have been identified and arrested and I would have lost our estate. Take care of my son."

"Yes milady." he replied with a slight smile and bow

She started to turn away before stopping and turning back.

"When you revive Dumbledore...tell him...tell him I will see him soon."

Remus seemed taken aback by this but smiled and nodded.

She turned and walked about five meters before stopping and Apparating away.

Remus bent down and picked up Ginny's wand then turned to Hermione and Buffy (she had moved towards them when Ron went into shock).

"Get Adam's staff and that disk of his, then head back to the school."

The pair both moved over to where Adam had been standing, Hermione bent down and picked up the disk and pocketed it while Buffy retrieved the staff before realising how many of the Death Eaters who were unconscious that littering the street were still unbound, they were being bound but there were not enough people doing it.

"Hermione take this, I'll see to tying up these Death Eaters." she said throwing the staff to Hermione immediately drawing her wand and turning her attention back to the Death Eaters.

As soon as Hermione's hands closed around the staff a pulse of magic flowed up her arm.

"Wow."

Buffy turned back to her from where she had been conjuring ropes.

"What's...Oh."

Hermione had never felt this much power, the magic was literally radiating from her.

"You're glowing."

Remus turned at Buffy's comment and spotted what the others had not.

"So is the crystal."

The others turned to look at the staff; the crystal at its peak was pulsating.

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:29__th__September 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Hospital Wing_

_Time:Late Afternoon_

Later that day in the Hospital Wing.

Draco was pacing furiously up and down the room, McGonagall, Remus and Buffy were standing near the beds of Dumbledore, Harry (both of whom they had been unable to wake) and Fleur (who all but those with knowledge of the mating were at a loss as to why she was unresponsive and as to when she had been hit), Ron (who were still unconscious), Buffy (who was reluctantly being forced to lie down by Madam Pomfrey after her run in with the deflected fireball not to mention all the other injuries she had picked up) and Hermione (who had Adam's staff by her bed).

The rest of the room was filled with Hogwarts students, with injuries ranging from cuts and gashes (like Neville and Luna) to comas from the snake victims, one area of the ward had been screened of; behind the screens lay the corpses of Hogwarts students.

So many had been injured during the fight that a Rapid Response Medical Team had been dispatched from St. Mungo's to help Madam Pomfrey and Tonks (Auror training includes emergency medical expertise) with the injured, especially those bitten by snakes for whom Professor Snape was rapidly mixing potions to slow down the effects until the correct snake species could be identified and the anti-venom's could be acquired from sources in the Muggle world.

"How many did we loose Poppy?" McGonagall questioned to the rapidly moving nurse.

"Five." She replied, not stopping her work "One sixth and one forth year Gryffindor, a sixth year Hufflepuff and three third year Ravenclaw's, many more are in critical condition."

"Who... who died?" Hermione asked slowly.

Madam Pomfrey turned slowly "I believe the ones you knew were Dennis Creevey, Seamus Finnigan and Susan Bones."

There was a collective gasp from most of the conscious occupants of the room and exclamations such as:

"Poor Colin." and "Oh no." and "No it's not true...it can't be."

Draco growled in frustration before turning to the Deputy Head "Yes, but what are we going to do about Ginny?"

"Mr. Malfoy you will not talk to Professor McGonagall that way." Lupin ordered turning to him, he was a little taken aback by the look Draco sent his way but did not show it.

"I don't give a toss about how I should speak to her, THEY'VE TAKEN MY GINNY!!"

Half the wing gasped at his rudeness and the rest at his use of the words 'my Ginny'.

Snape began moving towards him but was stopped by a calm hand from McGonagall.

"Mr. Malfoy." She replied in a calm voice "We have no idea where they have taken Miss Weasley and Professor Berio; we can do nothing until we know where they have gone."

Draco sighed "I'm sorry."

"Understandable Mr. Malfoy." she replied, turning to Hermione and more importantly the pulsating staff "The only clue we have to their whereabouts is Professor Berio's staff."

Lupin walked up to it and picked it up to examine it "Hermione, you said you felt a flow of magic come from the staff when you touched it."

"I can still feel it Sir, I...I feel more powerful than I have ever been I...I can't explain why."

"I think I can." all the conscious heads in the wing turned to the source of the voice, which unusually happened to be Buffy.

"When James attacked Adam I saw a small flash of light pass from Adam into the staff." she explained getting up and walking over to Hermione, much to the annoyance of Madam Pomfrey and the other medical personnel around the room.

Lupin thought for a moment before picking up a scrap of bandage material from the next bed and placing it at the foot of Hermione's.

"Hermione, would you levitate this please."

Hermione looked at him curiously before turning to McGonagall who nodded, she looked equally baffled. She drew her wand.

"Wingardium Leviosa."

There was a bang, a cloud of smoke and a sound of breaking stone.

When the smoke and dust cleared Hermione looked to see what had happened.

The table was a smoking ruin surrounded by stone fragments.

She looked up to see where they could have come from, what she saw made her and those around her gasp.

There was a huge hole in the ceiling, at least a meter radius, hovering in the centre was the bandage fragment looking slightly singed.

"Merlin!" someone in the ward exclaimed.

Hermione dropped her wand and back peddled away from it.

"What...how...I didn't...what." she attempted.

"I think that proves my theory." Lupin continued stopping only to summon the bandage back to him with his wand and to utter a repairing charm on the table. The ceiling had rebuilt itself; the walls were charmed to auto-repair reasonably sized breaks so it did not surprise him as much as some of the others.

"I believe Professor McGonagall, that the flash Buffy saw was Adam transferring his power into his staff."

"But why would he do that?" asked Buffy not taking her eyes off Hermione.

"Adam is very powerful, he did not want to risk his power falling into the wrong hands, when Hermione touched the staff the magic flowed into her, if James and Voldemort (collective shudders at his use of the name) got hold of his power and combined it with their own and even if Harry and Dumbledore were conscious they would be very difficult to stop."

"Then why did Hermione get the power instead of me?" asked Buffy "I touched the staff before her."

"My guess would be that he trusted Hermione to take care of his magic...I am not trying to suggest that you are untrustworthy Buffy," he added at her move to protest "He just trusted Hermione more."

"Miss Granger," McGonagall began turning to Hermione "Have you had any additional contact with Adam, that is to say more than your class mates have had."

For a brief second she went into panic, remembered the kiss.

"NO, no, no...no." she said a bit too loudly.

"Hermione?" Lupin asked calmly, he knew she was hiding something.

Hermione then glanced at Draco and remembered the conversation in the tower.

"I mean I...I saw him up I his tower once...just once...we talked...that's all...just talked."

"Did you talk about anything private...something he has not told the rest of us?"

"We talked about his past and...and we talked about...about the ring he gave Ginny and who it previously belonged to."

Draco flinched at Ginny's name.

"Well it seems that that conversation has earned you a special incite into his life that the rest of us are not aware of." Continued McGonagall.

Hermione's eyes flicked briefly to Draco then back to her Head of House.

"If he trusted you with knowledge of his life then it seems he also trusts you with his immense power as well."

Hermione gulped.

"The question remains as to what to do now?"

"Well, I can tell you that for whatever reason," interceded Madam Pomfrey "The other Healers and I are unable to wake the Headmaster or Professor's Potter and Delacour."

"I still want to know what happened to Fleur." Asked Remus "I didn't see her get hit by any of James's attacks and she was fine up until then."

Tonks, Hermione and the other conscious DA members exchanged looks before the Auror reluctantly cleared her throat.

"Yes Tonks?" asked McGonagall "Did you have something to add?"

"Yes." She nodded "I believe the reason that Fleur is unresponsive is because Harry is unresponsive."

"I'm afraid I don't follow you Tonks?" replied McGonagall at the same time as Buffy said "Huh?" but evidently Lupin did understand as his eyes widened greatly and he spun around to look at the Auror.

"You don't mean...They're not mated?"

There were gasps all around the room and all those who were conscious spun to look at Tonks, awaiting her confirmation.

"Since August." She nodded "Only a few of us know of it."

"As their souls are connected what affects one will also affect the other," Explained one of the Healers "But luckily curing one will also cure the other."

At that moment the doors of the Hospital Wing banged open and Minister Fudge walked in, flanked by four Aurors.

"Oh this can't be good." Muttered Buffy to Remus as Professor McGonagall moved towards the new arrivals.

"Minister," she greeted calmly "What can I do for you."

"You can explain how this happened." he replied hotly, gesturing to the injured.

"That is easy Minister," the Deputy Head replied "Hogsmeade was attacked by a large number of Death Eaters, Vampires, snakes and a Basilisk and no Aurors showed up to counter them, as such the students, staff and shoppers had to do the best that they could without them."

"Whether the Aurors showed up or not is not my fault Professor McGonagall, I..."

"Actually Minister," interrupted a voice from the doorway "It is."

Looking around the Minister's bodyguards Buffy was able to see the commanding form of Amelia Bones enter the room, followed immediately by Mr and Mrs Weasley, the Delacour's and several other people that she did not know, all apparently parents because as soon as they entered the room most of the crowd immediately separated and headed for the beds of their children, Amelia though moved to stand in front of Fudge so he was directly in between her and Professor McGonagall.

"If you had not ordered me to change the redistribution of Aurors so that your office had a larger protective force there would have been six Aurors stationed at the MMD Room watching for high concentrations of magic rather than the two that were there and were stunned AGAIN because there were no one there to watch their backs while they watched the detectors."

"Director Bones, it is your responsibility to..."

"You are right, it is, but I can only do my job so long as you do not interfere with the stationing of my Aurors. If you recall my Auror deployment plan was to station at least a dozen Aurors in both Hogsmeade and Diagon Ally but because of your interference and your belief that 'they would not dare to attack' all said Aurors were guarding the Ministry or patrolling areas of the country that would not have needed to have been patrolled if the MMD Room was fully staffed to watch those areas for magical activity."

"You have no pro..."

"Yes I have proof, as my most efficient secretary saw fit to use a documentation quill to minute the conversation from the time that you entered my office and ordered me, despite my objections to change the distribution. And with that our business is now done." Amelia concluded before turning to Professor McGonagall and in a much softer voice asked "Where is my niece?"

The Deputy Head gestured in the direction of the screen, behind which the dead students and several weeping families were concealed.

"Thank you." She nodded before walking past the Minister and disappearing behind the curtain.

The Minister then broke the quiet in the sombre room by turning back to McGonagall after his defeat to Madam Bones.

"As I was about to say Professor McGonagall, I wish to speak to Dumbledore immediately."

"Then you will need to wake him up first." interrupted Madam Pomfrey angrily "And as I and the rest of the Healers are unable to wake him, Professor Delacour or Professor Potter, I find it hard to imagine you being able to do so. And while you are in my Infirmary Minister you will keep your voice down, speak politely and be conscious of the feelings of others. People have died today and many more are critically injured and you are busy trying to shift blame away from yourself."

"Professor McGonagall I will not be spoken to like this," spluttered Fudge "Kindly keep control of your nurse."

"I am in control Minister," McGonagall returned "And I happen to agree with Poppy. Please keep your voice down."

Fudge obviously sensed defeat again as he shifted his attack, ignoring the requests to keep his voice down.

"As Dumbledore is unable to fulfil his duties as Headmaster the Ministry will, with immediate affect take control of Ho..."

"You will not Minister." Interrupted Professor McGonagall, taking a step closer to the man.

"I beg your pardon Professor McGonagall, but as Minister..."

"As Minister of Magic," began Professor Snape, stepping out from behind a small table where he had been mixing more potions he moved to back up his colleague, the Minister's Auror guards tensed at his manner "Since all your education degrees were abolished you have no authority over who runs Hogwarts...Minister."

"And encase you have forgotten Minister," continued McGonagall "I am not just the Transfiguration Professor and the Head of Gryffindor House. I am, as you just pointed out when you ordered me to control Poppy, the DEPUTY Headmistress of this school. As such I run the school in the Headmasters absence. Goodbye Minister."

Fudge spluttered for a few more seconds before turning on his heels and leaving, his Aurors guards having to jog to keep up.

"He already knew that Dumbledore was incapacitated before he came here." Explained Arthur Weasley, moving from his son's bedside "He came here to take control of Hogwarts as the Headmaster was incapacitated, he still fears Dumbledore and will do whatever he can to take power away from him."

He paused for a moment before continuing in a lot less certain tone.

"What of my daughter? What are we going to do?"

"We are going to find her Arthur." Replied McGonagall, laying a hand on his shoulder "Her and Adam, but we must not act rashly and we will have to do it ourselves, the Headmaster, Potter and Miss Delacour are all incapacitated and despite the best efforts of Severus, Poppy and the Healers they remain so."

"As we have been unable to cure them of this ailment," Snape interceded "I believe our best course of action would be to find Professor Berio and Miss Weasley, as it was Professor Berio's brother that caused their current state he may be able to bring them out of it."

"I agree," added Dimitri, standing from his chair between Harry's and Fleur's beds and moving over to the group "Adam stayed with us when we were sheltering Harry over the summer, from what I learned of him I would agree that he is our best chance at curing my daughter, Harry and your Headmaster. Dimitri Delacour, we met briefly during the Triwizard Tournament."

"Minerva McGonagall," returned the Professor "I am sorry for what has happened to your daughter, rest assured Comte we will do all we can to cure them."

"I know you will Professor McGonagall as my wife and myself will be helping you." Replied Dimitri before his face turned darker "I will not let anyone attack my daughter and the man I someday hope to be able to call son and get away with it."

* * *

A meeting was held later that day in the staffroom to decide on the best course of action.

All the Hogwarts staff, Amelia Bones, Kingsley, Mr and Mrs Weasley and the Delacour's had been present as were Hermione, Ron and Draco after they had pressed the issue and Hermione had pointed out to Professor McGonagall that Dumbledore and Adam would have let them attend.

They had come to the conclusion that beyond the Aurors following suspected Death Eater targets there was little else they could do.

England was too big to search all of it and their only mole (Snape) could not return as he had not been summoned and as he had no important information that would justify his return, in which case he probably would not be allowed to leave. Not to mention the fact that he did not have a clue as to where Voldemort's base of operations was as the Dark Lord had put up wards preventing any multiple Apparation's to the area so Snape could not take others with him and never allowed his followers outside when they came before him so they could not even narrow the field by identifying the surrounding area.

They were, in a word.

Screwed.

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:29__th__September 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:Evening_

"I call this emergency meeting to order." Called Dimitri, as the members of The Alliance Court fell silent around the table.

Dimitri, Ragnok, Dobby, The Veela Matriarch, Madam Maxime, Viktor, Bill, Colette, Tonks, Mr Ollivander, Bane and Aragog were gathered around the table, thankfully the room at the Chateau was large enough that both of the last two Alliance members could fit in, though neither obviously were sitting on chairs and chosen instead to sit on the floor in the manner of their species.

"Firstly I wish to greet those new members of the Court, Aragog and Bane of the Forbidden Forest, but unfortunately we do not have time for longer greetings as we have much more serious matter to discuss. Harry has been rendered unconscious and is completely unresponsive to all forms of medical treatment, also affected due to their bond is my eldest daughter Fleur. In addition to this Albus Dumbledore has also been incapacitated and Adam and one of our members, the sister of William, has been kidnapped. We are here to decide on a course of action, as Harry, Fleur and Dumbledore are stable and in no immediate danger I suggest that we concentrate on finding Adam and Miss Weasley."

"It's a good bet that V...Voldemort and James are holding them somewhere in Britain." explained Bill, the worry he felt for his sister was evident on his face though he was trying very hard not to show it.

"Which means that my people will not be able to use our flying ability to help search," explained The Matriarch "There are no Veela colonies inside the UK and it would look suspicious if we suddenly started appearing all over the county."

"Agreed." Nodded Dimitri.

"For the same reason we cannot be of much assistance," added Ragnok "Although there are many Goblins in Britain we always stick to the areas around our banks, so again we cannot do much without arousing suspicion."

"The Order and the Aurors are already scouring the country for them," explained Tonks "But they cannot cover the entire country by themselves."

"What about ve Centaurs and ve Acromantulas?" asked Madam Maxime.

"Many of my kind have already departed for the other forest," explained Bane "Living amongst the trees we are more likely to notice signs of human activity where the Human Aurors would not."

"I have already sent many of my sons and daughters out to cover as much of the country," added Aragog's low voice "The youngest of my children are light enough that they can be lifter by the wind and a therefore being disbursed widely though it will still take us days to cover the length of the country."

"We could use the Floo Network to speed up the distribution." Suggested Viktor "We could take some with us and travel to the far corners of the country so they can spread out from there, then when they have searched we can bring them back."

"I agree to this." Gestured the Acromantula.

"Good." Nodded Dimitri "We will begin as soon as this meeting is over. For now I believe our best chance of finding them resides with the House Elves."

"House Elves are already searching Death Eater homes," explained Dobby "Littlest Wheezy and Professor Guardian have not been found."

"Have any of the Death Eaters hinted at the location they may be held at?" asked Tonks.

"No Miss Tonksy," replied Dobby sadly "Only former master and Miss Trixe have spoken of it. Dobby thinks other Death Eater's not know about capture. Other Death Eater's seemed surprised when they heard about kidnap."

"Voldemort is probably trying to keep their location as secret as possible, with only those Death Eaters closest to him permitted knowledge of their location." Suggested Tonks.

"So there is not much else we can do except hope," sighed Dimitri "And Pray."

* * *

AUTHORS NOTE: I apologize that this chapter took so long to be published but both myself and my beta have been extremely busy of late. I have self beta'd this chapter to avoid you waiting another week. 


	87. CH87 Whispers In The Dark

Chapter 87 – Whispers In The Dark

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:2__nd__ October 2001 AD _

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Gryffindor Sixth Year Girls Dormitory_

_Time:Night_

Three days later, Gryffindor Sixth Year Girls Dormitory, midnight.

Hermione was restless, she has been since the kidnapping, everyone kept badgering her about her new power, power that under other circumstances she would have been ecstatic about, but right now she just wished Adam and Ginny were back so that things were back to normal.

Her class work particularly in Charms, Transfiguration and DADA had been a nightmare; in Charms they had been having a revision lesson, when asked to summon a feather by Professor Flitwick she had ended up in the Hospital Wing with the remains of the feather protruding from her stomach where it had imbedded itself at high speed.

The next time she had tried to summon the feather it exploded instead which although it wasn't really an improvement from the spells point of view, at least meant that she hadn't ended up in bandages.

She rolled over and starred at the pulsating staff which according to McGonagall was hers until Adam's return.

"This is all your fault." she whispered.

She had observed that the pulses had grown fainter over the last couple of days, which she took as not being a good sign.

Sleep finally claimed her and she began the dream that had repeated itself every night since the incident.

The dream begins:

She's wearing a long simple sleeveless white night gown, which is strange for a start as she doesn't own one.

She's in a large set of gardens bordering some steep cliffs; from what she can see of the rock it appeared to be white like the cliffs of Dover but the surroundings was far too green for it to be England.

She walks to the edge and looks down at the sea crashing against the cliff base.

"Don't get too close." a voice behind her warns.

She turns and sees a large shallow pond in the middle of the gardens which given the fact that they were near some very high cliffs was also very unusual. On the near edge of the lake was a solitary willow tree whose vines hung out over the lakes waters and the lawn creating a secret area concealed by its leaves.

Under it only just visible through the veil of foliage sits a man.

He was about the same height as Adam (around six feet tall), had curly brown slightly reddish hair which was slightly longer than normal so that it hung around his face, he also has blue eyes and is wearing a black shirt, tie, trousers and shoes along with a black business coat. Exactly what Adam had been wearing the first time they met.

"You don't want to cross that line...trust me."

"Who are you?" she asks walking towards him.

"I have many names...but in this case I am The Messenger...The Guide."

"The guide to what?" she asks as she reaches him, pulling aside the vines so she can see him clearly.

"The guide to what you must do...to the choices you have." he says gesturing to the cliffs.

She turns; on the cliff edge sits a peregrine falcon of pure white and a phoenix in the same colours as the Headmasters.

The falcon turns to her, it bows and she bows back.

A black peregrine falcon appears near her and moves rapidly towards the birds on the cliff.

The white falcon spreads its wings to her and cries out.

To her surprise its wings disappear before its darker counterpart reaches it; they turn into a mass of feathers, a third of which move towards her.

She thinks about moving out of their way but feels that wherever she goes they will follow her.

They reach Hermione and reform on her back as wings, wings easily big enough to allow her to fly giving her the appearance of an angel; the rest of the feathers fly off to either side of her.

Again she looks around to see where the other feathers had gone only to find herself standing next to two more animals, one on either side of her each about five meters away.

This time a unicorn and an otter.

The rest of the feathers reach the unicorn and the otter, they like with her reform on their backs as wings.

The winged otter turns to her and bows and she bows back.

She hears a loud hiss; turning back to the cliff she sees that a large black snake has joined the black falcon in front of its white and now wingless counterpart.

The snake and black falcon move at the phoenix, fangs and talons drawn.

The wingless falcon moves in front of the phoenix protectively, it lets out a piercing cry.

The otter and unicorn look up and see the wingless falcon under attack, they both turn to look behind them and call out.

Following their gaze Hermione sees that behind each animal is a white cloud which seems to be made up of other animals, she only sees these animals briefly, the odd head, leg, tail as it emerges before disappearing back into the clouds.

She turns to the man under the tree.

"Why are those animals inside a cloud?"

He looks at her.

"Because at the moment they are not important, they will go where they are directed, what is important is what is in front of you."

She senses that he is not going to tell her any more.

She turns back to see that the otter and the unicorn are now running at the falcon with the cloud creatures following them.

The falcon is now fighting to protect the phoenix.

It is not winning, the whiteness of its feathers fades slightly, it reminds her of the light from the staff.

Time slows the white falcon collapses under the combined attacks from both assailants.

The attackers move in for one final assault.

The otter and unicorn are almost at the scene of the battle.

"Selflessly the flightless bird defends its friends." says the figure behind her, distracting her from the scene.

She turns to see him standing about a meter from her.

"It will fight until death, it will defend what it has sworn to protect."

"Is there no way to save it?" she asks.

"Only the otter and the unicorn can save the falcon.

Only they can give the falcon back its wings."

"I...I don't understand."

"Without the falcon all hope is lost,

Without the falcon all will die,

The wolf will die,

The dog will die,

All will die."

"I don't understand, what do you mean?"

"Only the otter and the unicorn can save the falcon.

Only they can give the falcon back its wings."

"I don't understand, please explain."

The figure moves towards her.

"Only the otter and the unicorn can save the falcon.

Only they can give the falcon back its wings."

The figure is right in front of her, less than a foot in front of her face; he is getting louder and harsher with each word.

"Please explain, please." she was becoming emotional, there must be a way she can save the falcon, there must.

"ONLY THE OTTER AND THE UNICORN." he shouts in her face.

"PLEASE...Please." she sobs, falling to the grass in tears.

He kneels down in front of her and raises her chin the harshness has gone from his face.

Wait...this was different, it should have ended there, it always ends there.

"You haven't got much time...only the otter and the unicorn." he says comfortingly as though it is the answer to everything.

"What does it mean?...Who are they?...Please tell me." she pleads sobbing.

He looks into her eyes.

"The otter."

She snaps awake sweating and breathing heavily.

She makes no move for several minutes before making her decision.

She gets out of bed, pulls on her dressing gown and heads out of the dorm, down into the Common Room.

"Hermione?" says a surprised yet drowsy voice.

She turns to see Colin Creevey drag himself out of one of the armchairs in front of the fire.

"What's wrong?" he asks concerned.

She considers ignoring him, but realises she could really use some company.

"I'll tell you on the way." she informs him before proceeding out of the portrait hole receiving a grumble from the Fat Lady.

Colin runs to catch up.

"What's wrong?" he repeats

"I'll tell you when we get there," she replies "What were you doing by the fire Colin?"

He slows slightly; she turns to look at him.

"Colin?"

"I was...I was thinking about my brother." he replied with his head lowered "I keep hoping that...that he's not really dead and that I just imagined it or something."

She feels so sorry for him, she had never had siblings but she could imagine what it would be like if she were to loose Harry or Ron.

She walks up to him and gives him a comforting hug, much to the surprise of the smaller boy.

"I do hope I'm not interrupting?" a voice from behind them asks, making them jump.

They turn to see Buffy standing behind them; she looks like she hasn't slept for days.

"Professor are you alright?" Hermione asks.

"I'm a night's person I don't sleep well, I was hoping a run would tire me out but nope, still as fidgety as a ferret and...Hey...stop trying to change the subject. Why are you two out of bed this late?"

"I was going to see Professor McGonagall." Hermione replies, this comes as a surprise to Colin.

"Well let's go and see her then." Buffy suggests before turning to the mourning brother "Colin, why don't you go back to bed, try and get some sleep."

"Yes Professor." He nods, before heading back in the direction they came.

Hermione and Buffy exchange a sad look at seeing him like that before turning and continuing Hermione's previous course.

When they reached the office Buffy knocked.

"I didn't realise it was so late, she'll probably be in bed by now."

"Would you be if your boss was laying almost lifeless in the Hospital Wing and everyone was looking to you for answers." Buffy replied just before the door opened.

The Professor looked tired but she was still fully dressed and showed no signs of trying to get any sleep.

"Buffy?" she asked "Miss Granger?"

"I need to talk to you Professor," explained Hermione "It's important."

"Very well." Nodded McGonagall before opening the door and permitting them entry.

They walked to the desk and sat in the two chairs lined up in front of it.

As soon as they sat down a House Elf appeared with three mugs of hot chocolate before disappearing almost as fast.

Hermione almost jumped out of her seat when Fawkes fluttered into the room through the window and landed on the arm of her chair.

"Do not worry Miss Granger...he will not harm you." McGonagall reassured her.

"Just a bit of a fright." she replied.

"He has taken to keeping me company for the last few days. So what do you need to tell me that could not wait until the morning?"

Over the next fifteen minutes Hermione explained to them her dreams from the last few days.

"...I thought at first they were just dreams...but three days running is really one too many days to be a coincidence." she finished.

"I agree." Nodded her Head of House "Unlike the Headmaster I am not normally one for believing such things but when it comes from you Miss Granger who is of a similar opinion I am forced to agree. Do you know the meaning or identity of any of the animals in your dream?"

"I believe that Professor Berio is the white falcon but other than that." she guessed shrugging.

"I would agree, it would seem logical." McGonagall concurred.

"Why is that logical?" Buffy asks confused

"It was the first form we ever saw him assume." Hermione explained "I don't think he does it like an Animagus as he would not have been able to transform me as well when I was grazed by that Killing Curse."

Buffy nodded her understanding.

"We need to discover who all the other animals represent as soon as possible." Decided McGonagall "But for the time being I suggest we all get some sleep."


	88. CH88 The Otter Revealed

Chapter 88 – The Otter Revealed

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:3__rd__October 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – The Library_

_Time:Late Evening_

The next evening in the Library Ron, Hermione, Draco, Colette, Tonks, McGonagall, Snape, Buffy, a large portion of the DA and Dimitri Delacour were busy researching.

Since the attack Draco has joined the group, apparently he has spent nearly all his waking moments researching and like them he was reading frantically for anything that could help them locate the kidnapped pair or that would describe Hermione dream.

Hermione had spent the last four hours staring at a piece of parchment with a table full of the names of all the animals from her dream, only the falcon row was complete.

It was eleven at night and it was at this point most nights that people started drifting; Ron and Buffy had already started.

The Slayer was struggling to keep her eyes open and Ron was doodling on a spare piece of parchment while still trying as hard as he could to concentrate on the book on the table in front of him, it was an odd habit that he had picked up that allowed him to both read and draw at once.

Hermione just hoped Draco wouldn't notice, even the slightest deviation would set him off again, he had been very uptight over the last few days, even more so than Ginny's family.

"Weasley!"

He's noticed.

Everyone was snapped out of the trances they had been in.

"What the hell do you think you are doing, don't you want to get your sister back!!" Draco shouted angrily, standing and facing the red head.

Ron stood to shout back.

"You know I do Malfoy, so why are you wasting time arguing!!"

"Because you're not even reading, your doodling." he shouted snatching up the piece of parchment screwing it up then throwing it so that it bounced of the wall and flew back to land next to Hermione.

"Gentlemen." Dimitri began calmly, his dominant political voice grabbing their attention "Shouting about it won't solve the problem...We are all tired so I suggest we call it a night and resume tomorrow."

Everyone got up slowly while the boys turned their backs refusing to look at each other.

They collected their books together and piled them as they had everyday that week.

They all turned to leave Hermione stopped to pick up the piece of parchment that had been thrown by Draco.

She picked it up and unscrewed it

Ron had drawn a dodgy picture of Harry's Patronus form; the stag.

Wait...

Patronus...

PATRONUS...HER PATRONUS IS A...

OF COURSE!!

"RON!" she shouted getting everyone's attention "What's Ginny's Patronus form?"

He looked at her strangely, before replying.

"You know that...you were at the DA meeting when we did Patronus's"

"Patroni Ron, and yes I know but I didn't see it, what was Ginny's?" sensing the seriousness in her voice he answered.

"It was a phoenix but wh...PHOENIX!!" understanding hit him like a tone of bricks "She's the...and you're the."

He ran up to Hermione and planted a huge kiss on her mouth.

"Hermione...you're a genius!" he looked like she had just given him tickets in the VIP box for the next five Quidditch world cups.

He kissed her...he had kissed her.

Wow.

That alone made the discovery worthwhile.

"Would someone please explain?" Snape said with his usual droll monotone.

They turned finally remembering that everyone else was still in the room.

"Don't you see Sir?" Hermione began; she was so excited she was nearly jumping up and down.

"I'm the otter...I'm the otter and Ginny is the phoenix...Don't you see sir...it's our Patronus forms."

"Excellent Miss Granger." McGonagall said beaming as comprehension sunk in "Fifty points to Gryffindor."

"We may know who you are but we still don't know who the others are." Ron said slightly deflated.

"But it is simple now we know how the animals are selected; the black falcon would be James, presuming he has the same Patronus form as Adam." Hermione continued.

"Yes." Tonks continued from where she left of "The snake must be Voldemort." there were collective shudders from all who were not Snape, Hermione and Buffy.

"But what about the unicorn?" Buffy asked

"I don't know...but I think we know enough." Hermione concluded.

"Enough!" Snape said as if to say 'Are you serious'. "All this is guess work...and we still don't know where they are."

As if it had been waiting for the question to be asked, Adam's staff started glowing brighter and faster.

A beam of light shot out of the crystal and hit one of the piled books.

The book slid out of its stack and came to rest in front of Hermione, the book opened and the pages flapped over until it reached the page it wanted.

Another beam of light, this time very narrow shot out of the crystal and crated a small burn mark on the page.

After a few seconds the crystal returned to its usual slow pulsing.

They all leaned in to see what was on the page of the book.

What they saw was a map of England; the burn mark was in the lower left hand corner.

"Dartmoor." McGonagall read the label next to the burn "That's where they are being held."

"You mean all we had to do was ask the staff?" said an exasperated Buffy, not liking having done all that research when all they had to do was ask the stick of wood.

Draco immediately made for the door but Snape intercepted him.

"Mr. Malfoy what are you going to do...charge in there all by yourself...We need to plan this carefully." Draco nodded slowly.

McGonagall turned to Tonks "Rally the troops...we're going on the offensive."

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:4__th__October 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – England_

_Location:Dartmoor_

_Time:Dawn_

Dartmoor at dawn the next morning, almost all the members of the Order were present along with Buffy, Dimitri, Delphine, Ron, Hermione and Draco. More had wanted to come but some had been left guarding Hogwarts and the wounded in the infirmary.

Snape had suggested that the last three should stay back but McGonagall knew that Ron and Draco would be there if they had to destroy all of Hogwarts to do it and Hermione had to be there because she was the otter, although they didn't know what she had to do yet.

They were crouched in the shrubs surrounding a small castle; it was a simple keep with no additional outer walls, though the keep did not appear on any maps that they had seen it was the only place that the pair could be hidden.

The group was divided into two teams.

Each would take a different entrance to the castle.

The first team lead by McGonagall contained Ron, Hermione, Tonks, Kingsley, Mad Eye, Buffy, Arthur and Molly were going in via a side door.

The second team lead by Remus contained Draco, Snape, Dimitri, Fred and George (now that they had been fully initiated into the order), Bill, Charlie and a dozen Veela guards that most thought were a favour to Dimitri from The Veela Matriarch rather than Alliance reinforcements to bolster their numbers.

This group would be flying to the roof and creating a distraction so that the others could hunt for the prisoners (apparently Lupin and Snape had been amateur Quidditch players in their day but Snape simply had no ambition to join the Hogwarts house team and Lupin given his condition was banned because of the extra strength and sensory awareness it provided).

For obvious reasons there was a heavy contingent of Weasley's on this mission and boy were they mad, Hermione felt really sorry for any Death Eater that got in their way.

The plan was simple.

One team create a distraction while the other team gets in, gets their people then portkeys out.

She looked around, the rest of her team were there and all had their wands drawn, she was the only one who didn't the reason for this being that it was safely tucked in her robes and that she was using her staff.

Her staff.

When had it become hers, it was Adam's, IS Adam's, he'd be taking it back at the end of the night.

She wasn't sure if it was an overly sensible thing to do as she hadn't tried using it yet, she hadn't dared risk it.

She saw a flash of green sparks in the distance. That was the signal from the other team saying they were in position.

McGonagall sent up a small plume of her own signalling the attack.

They would only just have been visible as dawn hadn't broken yet.

McGonagall turned to them "Let's go."

They all stood crouched low and moved quickly towards the castle, about one hundred meters ahead at the top of a small hill.

In the distance Hermione heard the subtle sound of fast moving brooms and the flapping of wings.

"Stop." McGonagall whispered back to them gesturing down with his hand.

They all crouched low.

From her position next to her she could see what the Professor was looking at.

On the battlements silhouetted against the sun's rays was a Death Eater.

He was only visible to them because behind him was the morning light.

The second team would never spot him until it was too late.

McGonagall levelled her wand in his direction but did not fire.

"You can't hit him from here." Tonks whispered.

"You're right, I don't think I can." She admitted, lowered her wand "You need to use the staff Miss Granger, it will be more accurate."

She gaped.

"But Professor... I haven't even..." she began.

"Have faith in yourself Miss Granger." she whispered.

"Ok...I'll try."

She levelled the staff at the Death Eater he was at least forty meters away from them.

She had better not miss or he would raise the alarm.

Using the staff's length like a sight she aimed along it.

"You can do it." Ron whispered behind her.

She took a deep breath.

"Stupefy." she whispered as quietly as she could manage.

The spell coursed through the staff and rocketed off towards the Death Eater like a shoulder launched missile, the force of the spell knocked Hermione off her balanced crouched position onto her back.

To say 'He never knew what hit him' would be an understatement.

Instead of making him unconscious, it had hit him and blown him clean off the rear battlements and the last they saw of him was when he dropped down over the far side of the castle and bearing in mind the castle was a keep over fifty meters square and the walls were ten meters high, It was safe to say that if he regained consciousness he was going to have one hell of a headache and that was assuming he ever got up again after that fall.

Luckily from Hermione's point of view, he landed in a bush (as they later discovered), so aside from the headache and a few thorns he survived the spell intact.

"Way to go girl." Tonks encouraged giving her a slap on the back.

This was probably the worst thing she could have said, what the others were doing was a lot more preferable by far.

They were stunned into silence.

Hermione was almost afraid of the staff now.

How did Adam regulate that kind of power?

"I suggest we continue," Arthur suggested "The other team is already at the roof."

They quickly made their way to the door, after casting numerous disarming and neutralisation charms to make sure the door was not booby trapped McGonagall opened the door.

They crept inside, the castle looked terrible, the floors, walls and ceilings were all black with dirt, slime and dust of every kind. It would be a good place for a horror movie.

"This place sure needs some major housekeeping." commented Buffy.

People would have laughed if it the situation hadn't been as serious as it was.

They made their way down the corridor they were in and other than being confronted by a pair of rats (with normal limbs) they saw no one.

After another minute they heard an explosion overhead.

"Looks like the others are making their presence known." chuckled Tonks.

They searched three rooms as they passed down the next corridor. Each time all they found was what can only be described as torture chambers. Each room had manacles on the walls, a table full of torture devices both Wizarding and Muggle which none of them would care to describe, tables (also fitted with manacles) that could be altered to lie flat or hang vertically.

But this was nothing to what else they found.

Bodies.

Decaying carcases, long since dead.

Scarred, burned, blood covering the floor.

Signs of torture on their skin.

Broken limbs.

Slit wrists.

Severed fingers.

The smell of decay flooded their senses in every room they entered.

Hermione and Tonks were both physically sick at the sight. No one, not even Mad Eye could blame them, most felt the same and it was only thanks to them holding their breath that they did not react the same way.

They moved on as rapidly as possible, they did not want to linger more than they had to.

They came to the last room on the corridor praying they did not find more of the same.

The door creaked open.

The sight that greeted them shocked them all and would scar their memories.

"Oh Merlin."

Hanging from the far wall was Ginny Weasley.

Her shirt and skirt were ripped and were hanging off; she was covered in blood and cuts and had numerous bruises and swellings.

"Ginny!!" Molly cried out, running into the room, immediately followed by Ron and Arthur. The others rushed in to help get her of the wall.

They had to blast the manacles to release them.

They lowered her to the floor to examine her while Ron removed his jacket and draped it round her shoulders.

McGonagall pointed her wand.

"Ennervate."

Her eyes opened slowly "Mom."

Wait something was wrong; she didn't say that as if she were in pain.

"Oh Ginny." the entire family threw themselves at her.

With all the cuts and bruises she should have been in agony.

"Are you in pain?" asked McGonagall.

"No...no I'm not." she said surprised looking down at herself "Oh Merlin what happened."

"You...you don't feel any pain...none at all?"

Realisation dawned on Hermione.

"It will fight until death, it will defend what it has sworn to protect."

All turned to her.

"That's what it meant, the dream. This isn't real." she said gesturing to Ginny's injuries "Adam is still protecting her; he must be using the power he has left to create the illusion of these injuries."

McGonagall turned to Ginny "What do you remember Miss Weasley?"

"I remember appearing here then...then peace...just peace, utter calm...that's all."

Moody aimed his wand at Ginny and muttered something the others did not hear.

There was a moment's pause before her injuries flickered then disappeared.

"Merlin!"

The Ginny in front of them was exactly as she was when she was taken, even her clothes were intact, it didn't even look like she had been chained to a wall for almost a week.

Hermione spun on McGonagall "How much power would that take?"

"An enormous amount especially if he had to deceive James and Voldemort as he would need to make the illusion react as though it was hurt, we need to find Adam VERY quickly."

They started to stand.

Hermione drew her wand and handed it to Ginny.

"Here, we left yours back at Hogwarts...I don't need it." Ginny took it with a questioning look; Hermione raised the staff so she could see it.

"Isn't that Adam's?" she asked

"Until we rescue him," Tonks began "It belongs to Hermione."

Ginny tried to question them but they told her that they would explain later.

They stood, Molly still fusing over Ginny with the rest of the Weasley's standing over her protectively.

"We must be going." Mad Eye grunted from his position guarding the door.

A huge explosion sounded on the other side of the castle.

Buffy looked in that direction and raised an eyebrow.

"A distraction is one thing but this is ridiculous...what are they doing over there?"

Tonks and a couple of others made sounds of agreement.

A couple of flashes and the sound of dull objects hitting the floor came from the doorway.

"You will never find out." said a voice from the same direction.

* * *

Buffy and the others spun round to see Wormtail and four other Death Eaters in the doorway, wands drawn, standing over the unconscious bodies of Mad Eye and Kingsley. The other four all had their hoods and masks on, only Pettigrew's head was fully visible.

"Wormtail," began Tonks "Do you honestly believe that the five of you can stop us?"

Buffy's enhanced hearing picked up the muffled sound of voices in the hallway; no one else seemed to notice them.

"Oh we don't need to," Peter nodded to the floor behind them "She will."

A hiss behind them turned all their heads.

A very large snake slithered its way out from under the table it had been concealed under.

"All yours Nagini." Peter said through an evil smile.

_Nagini...Harry didn't say the snake was that big, it's almost four meters long, how on Earth did we not see it._

_Well never mind, you have faced bigger._

The group turned back to back so that they were facing both enemy threats. Buffy was standing in the middle trying to cover both directions at once.

Wormtail turned his head towards Hermione; his gaze flickered to the staff then back to her face.

"Ah, you must be the one he gave his power to." Buffy and Tonks protectively moved in closer.

"My master was very annoyed when he was brought back powerless...I guess I can make a gift of you to him."

Buffy saw one of the Death Eaters raising his wand slowly.

She wasn't going to let them take them by surprise, but apparently Hermione could see it as well.

"**Immobulus!"**

**Hermione's spell tore through the air. **

The spell collided with ALL of the Death Eater and like their friend on the roof they didn't know what hit them; they were thrown back at the wall on the far side of the hallway...but the wall didn't stop them.

It crumbled under the force of the impact as they flew through it to land in the next chamber.

Buffy though she heard another voice from the hall this time a bit louder, but she was in too much shock to notice, whatever that spell was supposed to do it definitely would give those five a headache the next day.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again Hermione, Way to go girl...you could do this by yourself, do you really need our help?" Tonks slapped her back again, Hermione wished she wouldn't keep doing that, Tonks might not be the strongest person in the world but she does have some strength in her.

McGonagall sent the Auror in question a disapproving look.

Cautiously a head poked its way round the door all wands (and staffs) levelled at it.

"It's ok it's us."

_Oh thank God, it's one of the twins._

He and the rest of the other group walked into the room.

Adam was not with them.

"Shouldn't you be creating a distraction?" Buffy accused.

"Yes, but we ran out of Death Eaters to distract." Bill informed them "It was too easy. The Veela are clearing up any we missed, we left a portkey with them so they could get out."

"Merlin Hermione!" Fred (or George) exclaimed examining the damage in the far wall.

"We better not get on your bad side." the other twin finished, before both twins along with Draco, Bill and Charlie spotted Ginny and rushed for her engulfing her in multiple hugs.

"Air...AIR!" Ginny reminded them from inside the mass of (mostly) red hair.

They all pulled back.

"Oh God Ginny are you alright." Draco asked, he had just noticed her remarkably unmarked state.

"I'm fine, I didn't feel a thing...Adam protected me...he created the illusion of injuries to make it look like I was hurt."

"I really need to meet this man." Charlie commented, all the other members of the room who hadn't met him nodded their agreement "He's going to be a friend of the Weasley's for life."

"Come on, we better get going." Remus reminded them.

As they started moving out a scream sounded.

The snake...

They had forgotten about the snake!!

Buffy whipped her head around; the snake had coiled its tale around Ginny's leg and pulled her to the ground.

"GINNY!!"

The snake pulled her out of their reach, it reared up to lunge.

"STOP!!" Hermione shouted.

The snake did.

More out of shock than an acknowledgement of the command, but stop it did.

"Let her go!"

Let go of her it didn't.

Just as it dawned on the snake that it had stopped, Buffy took her chance and plunged a dagger into its coils.

The snake hissed out in pain, giving the others time to pull Ginny free.

Spinning back to the snake they were just in time to see it disappear through a small hole in the wall.

Hermione looked around and realised everyone was looking at her; many as if she had had grown another head.

"Was I...was I speaking..."

"Sounds like you were." Nodded Ron.

"How?"

"Adam's power." Remus guessed "He must have the ability to talk to snakes."

Hermione nodded.

"We can discuss that later." Snape reminded them in his usual agitated manner as he helped a now conscious Mad Eye to his feet...well, foot and wooden leg.

"Constant vigilance Mad-Eye?" Tonks asked beaming as she passed him to check the hall was clear.

If looks could kill Tonks would already be in her grave from the look Moody sent her way.

"This is not the time for this," he said trying to change the subject "We have that Guardian to find remember."

"I just did." Tonks voice filtered through the door from where she had been checking the hallway, her previous comic manner gone completely.

She was looking into the room the Death Eaters had been blown into.

"Oh Merlin."


	89. CH89 Surprise Arrivals

Chapter 89 – Surprise Arrivals

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:4__th __October 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – England_

_Location:Dartmoor_

_Time:Morning_

Hermione was first in, dropping the staff as she went; she was understandably surprised though when she heard a splash as it hit the floor.

Looking down, what she saw terrified her.

Blood.

The entire floor of the five meter square room was covered in a thin layer of blood.

Looking around the room she saw more horrific sites than anyone should ever have to see in their life times:

Fragments of black clothing were scattered around the room.

Dead skin floated across the bloodied floor, Hermione got the feeling that it was not dead when it was ripped from the body; some of it appeared to be burned.

What she saw next made her want to be sick.

Fingers.

Severed fingers.

They had started to in decay.

"Oh Merlin!" exclaimed Tonks again.

She followed her line of sight and gasped.

In the middle of the room was a table tilted at an angle of about eighty degrees.

On the table hanging by one of his arms was Adam.

They ran to the table not bothering to step over the Death Eaters that had been blasted into the room.

The adults started attempting to get break the shackles while the students attempted to revive him.

"Adam...ADAM!" Hermione shouted.

He looked worse than Ginny.

He looked like death.

All his clothes were ripped off except the part of his trousers that kept him decent. 

His injuries were horrific.

There wasn't an inch of his skin (including his face and neck) that wasn't cut, burned, peeling off the flesh or just gone.

What skin was left was either black from burning, red where the outer layer had been ripped off or almost translucent where the blood had drained from his body

How much blood did he have left?...the entire floor was covered in it.

He also had huge gashes were his skin had been sliced as well as massive swellings and bruises were he had been hit.

He had various weapons protruding from his chest as well as large holes (up to two inches in diameter) where weapons had obviously been, some of the holes were deep enough to go straight through him into the table.

A mortal man would never have survived this torture, so thank God he wasn't and that some power must have been keeping him alive.

Buffy, Ron, Draco, Fred and George started pulling out the weapons impaling him; they ranged from swords to stakes, from arrows to crowbars, all the while trying their hardest to keep their last meal down.

His left hand was fingerless but he had no blood left to ooze from the stumps.

The sight made Hermione want to run but she knew she must stay.

Hermione examined the rest of him and noticed what all the other students already had.

The reason why he was only hanging from just his left arm...

Was that his right arm wasn't there.

Below his elbow his arm had been severed.

Bone fragments remained jutting out of the wound.

What looked almost as bad was the fact that some of his joints were backwards where the bone had been broken and forced into other positions

"Oh GOD...Adam wake up!...Wake up!...You cannot be dead…YOU CAN NOT BE DEAD!" Hermione screamed.

She lifted his head and looked at his closed eye.

EYE!

His left eye was not in its socket and the socket itself was almost swollen shut.

There was a gash running down through his eye lid and through where his eye should have been.

"ADAM!...ADAM!" she was getting frantic now, Ginny had joined her at trying to shake him awake.

They probably would have tried slapping him if it were not for his injuries.

"Got it!" said Arthur triumphantly as the hand was released and Adam sagged and started to fall forward.

"Ok, careful." said Fred as he and George gently lowered him to the ground, careful to ensure his head did not fall in the blood.

Hermione dropped to her knees immediately, the jeans she was wearing getting covered in his blood; Buffy dropped down beside her as Hermione lifted his head into her lap and the adults started to do some emergency repairs to his body.

Remus lowered himself to Adam's side, pointing his wand at Adam.

"Ennervate."

Nothing happened.

"Ennervate!"

Nothing.

"All together?" Buffy suggested.

Everyone except Hermione aimed wands at him.

"ENNERVATE!"

Remus sighed and looked to her.

"Hermione you try it."

She looked up shocked.

"I...I'll hurt him!"

"He is hurt enough; if it's his magic it may have more effect!"

Hermione sighed and reached for the staff that she had dropped on the way in.

Picking it out of the blood, the liquid flowed off it as if it had never been staining its skin; no hint of it remained upon it.

She took a deep breath.

"You can do it Mione." Ron encouraged, she didn't even notice the abbreviation of her name.

"Enner.." the staff cut her off by glowing brightly.

It wasn't a harsh light, rather soft and healing.

The light fell on Adam engulfing him.

"What's happening?" asked Buffy as the light dimmed.

Adam took in a gasp, making all of them jump.

"Adam...oh God Adam." Hermione exclaimed through her tears.

"Last time I checked." he replied weakly opening his eye.

Hermione moved around so she was looking at him the right way up as she engulfed him in a hug.

"ARRGH!" he cried

"SORRY!...sorry!" she apologised jumping back.

For the first time she looked into his good eye.

She gasped.

His pupil was white, as was the iris.

"Oh God Adam...Your...Your blind." she said beginning to weep again, there were collective gasps at her statement, the others obviously having not noticed either.

"I know that." he said as if it were a joke.

How can he think it's funny...he's blind...and he almost died.

Before she could continue he interrupted.

"Could someone pull that knife out of me?" 

Looking down Hermione realised there was still one knife in his chest.

"Sorry!" apologised Ron as he curled his hand round the knife and pulled.

Adam grunted at the extraction of the knife.

Before Ron could apologise again the far wall exploded in, showering them with dust, leaning over they all moved to cover Adam from the blast.

When they looked up they saw two very pissed looking women in the door way, one blond, one brunette. 

Ron couldn't believe what he was seeing, the brunette he didn't recognise, but the blond was very familiar.

The blond was...

"Buffy?"


	90. CH90 Tara's Mission

Chapter 90 – Tara's Mission

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date: 4__th __October 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – England_

_Location:Dartmoor_

_Time: Morning_

Tara was angry.

She was really angry and that was unusual for a start.

Tara Maclay, the sweet girl who any man would be happy to take home to their elderly parents and have complete faith that she would be accepted as a future wife had undergone a major change.

It had started when they performed the Right of Osiris to resurrect Adam and Buffy.

Buffy (it turned out later) had been resurrected as planned, but Adam.

When the ritual was performed a ghostly image of Adam had raised out of the ground leaving the earth undisturbed.

It had walked up to Tara bowed and had been absorbed into her.

She had felt this almighty surge of magic.

She had never felt that powerful before.

The others were concerned about what had happened but she just told them that somehow she just knew that the Right had failed and that Adam must have been too powerful for even Willow to pull back, as such they just raised his magic which moved to the nearest safe host or something similar which at that moment happened to be her, leaving the rest of him dead.

They later discovered that the Right had been a partial success when they found Buffy wondering around the streets but they never saw any sign of Adam, his grave remained untouched.

After that things proceeded as usual for a few weeks the only real difference being Tara's increased confidence and power which allowed her to assist the Scoobies to a greater extent than she had before, putting her on the same level as Willow if not beyond it in some areas.

Her new powers seemed immense, it was very hard for her to control them, recently she had been reading up on more powerful spells and almost all had worked first time.

During the weeks that followed she kept hoping that Adam would arrive one day, open the door and just tell them it took him a bit longer to come back, she would have given anything to see him again, apart from the fact that she considered him a close friend, she kept thinking that her powers were not hers to control, they were still partially wild and strained to break out at times, it was especially hard if she became emotional.

The next major threat came when Warren shot Tara and Buffy.

Willow turned dark and tried to destroy the world.

But the person Tara felt really sorry for was Dawn.

When she had woken up she saw Dawn crouched in the corner of the room sobbing, she very nearly jumped out of her skin when Tara (after lying dead for over six hours) opened her eyes and stood up, her scream had been heard blocks away.

It had taken her hours to calm Dawn down and quite frankly who could blame her.

By the time Tara managed to catch up with Willow she was in Xander's arms sobbing on a hill top.

After that Willow went to England with Giles to learn control of her abilities.

While they were away Tara returned to studying Adam's book (which Willow had left behind) in an attempt to find out why she had survived a bullet to the heart.

She discovered that the book actually answered questions if you asked them in a way that it could answer.

It had told her that her increased powers had regenerated her, Adam's powers had kept her alive; it had just taken time as the magic was not naturally hers.

After Willow returned nothing unusual (or rather more unusual than normal) really happened to the Scoobies.

Until four days ago...

* * *

For the last three nights she had been having dreams about Adam.

Every time exactly the same.

She was wearing a simple white night dress walking through Adam's house.

Adam kept calling.

Calling out to her.

"Tara."

"Tara I need you."

"Tara...I need your help."

The voices always came as whispers from just around the next corner, but she could never catch up with the voice.

The voices always led her to the prayer room with the Ankh sign on the wall.

Adam stands at the far end of the room looking as he always does making Tara wonder if the voice was really his.

"Help me Tara."

"How can I help you?" she asks.

"Fly to my, fly across the pond, rescue me."

"How...Where are you?"

"Use what is mine."

"What do you mean?"

"Look it up."

His body starts to decay, skin crumbling, falling off.

"Use what is mine."

"How...what?"

His right arm disintegrates.

"Look it up...unicorn."

The fingers on his other hand crumble.

"What?"

He crumbles to dust, the word:

"Unicorn."

Drifting through the air.

She wakes up in a cold sweat.

This is the cycle that repeated itself for the last three days.

The Scoobies had discussed it and assumed nothing of it until Adam's book (which Willow had on her) had started to glow after Xander asked something along the lines of.

"Well, how on Earth are we supposed to find him?"

They opened the book and it flicked through the pages until it finally came to a stop on a page with a strange flowing script on it, like that on the cover.

The biggest shock came when they discovered that Tara could read it where the others couldn't, though they did not know why or how. She was also able to translate the title on the cover which although it still spelt out:

_Pron Tirno Daram_

She somehow knew meant:

_The Guardians Journal_

The fresh writing on the page read:

_Across the pond. _

A map drew itself on the page.

A map of what Giles told them was a portion of southern England, an area of the map was highlighted.

Tara had informed them that they were going, or if they weren't she was.

Luckily everyone agreed to go, even Dawn and Spike, the former had been very uncomfortably around Tara for a while after her return to the land of the living.

That was yesterday; today two witches, The Key, a Slayer, a Vampire, a Vengeance Demon, a builder, a cat and a wolf were in England after getting a very rapid flight courtesy of Angel and Wolfram & Hart.

And they were currently inside a castle having just blown the door with explosive (courtesy of Angel); they were damp soggy, they were jetlagged and it sound like a battle had just taken place on the roof.

The only resistance they had faced was just before entering.

These weird guys in black cloaks and white masks armed with pathetic little stakes.

Dawn commented that they must have seen Phantom on the Opera too many times.

They had left the animals to deal with them and headed inside.

Buffy was particularly pissed all though she would never admit it, but she didn't like not being in charge. It was like an itch, she had to keep resisting the urge to take charge, every time Tara moved them in another direction she felt the itch intensify.

And this was most defiantly Tara's mission.

She was in charge. She was leading Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles, Dawn and Anya to get Adam.

They were close, Tara could sense it.

They passed a wall and she stopped.

"What is it Baby?" Willow asked.

"He's behind this wall." Tara explained.

"Well, how are we going to get thro..." Xander began but was cut short by Tara blasting the wall with a sphere of magic (another new skill) at the same time as Buffy slammed her troll hammer into it.

It crumbled under the combined impact.

Tara and Buffy stepped into the gap.

* * *

"Buffy?" asked Ron.

Tara looked into the room to see a man holding a bloody knife over a very badly injured Adam.

To say Tara was annoyed would be an understatement.

But as dangerous as Tara was she was not the problem.

The redhead poking her head through the gap was.

A red head who was rapidly going gothic.

Willow had tried to cure herself of the magic's but given what the Scoobies do, they had come to realise that it would be impossible for her to give up Magic completely, especially with a Wiccan girlfriend.

Willow screamed, a shockwave emanating from her sending those in the hall into the wall behind them and throwing Tara and Buffy into the room to fall into the blood soaked floor.

Remus, Ron and Hermione moved in front of Adam defensively.

Unfortunately as Ron was still holding the bloodied knife and he did not look like a protector, but more like a torturer.

Willow screamed again.

"DIE!!"

"Willow NO!!" Tara cried but it was too late.

The ball of black magic cursed towards Ron.

Hermione stepped in the way staff raised.

"Diduco!"

A ball of white light flew from the staff and collided with the black sphere coming in the opposite direction.

The collision created an almighty explosion sending everyone to the floor.

* * *

Adam, realising that things were going to get really ugly if he didn't do something fast, with Ron's aid struggled to his feet, he started to fall only to be caught by Fred and George who had stayed on his arms encase he fell again.

The twins supporting him was unbearably painful, every millimetre of his skin was damaged in some way, but he wouldn't say anything, they were trying to help.

Everyone had began to get to their feet most had their weapons aimed at the opposing group.

"Stop...all of you." he gasped weakly.

Some members of the groups lowered their weapons trusting Adam's judgment, others did not.

* * *

Tara breathed a huge sigh of relief, he was ok, Adam was ok.

She climbed to her feet and ran to Adam and hugged him.

Fred and George backed up a bit trying giving them some space but still near enough to Adam encase he started to collapse, Hermione and Ginny had also moved to his side, not knowing the woman holding one of their favourite teachers they did not trust her.

"Oh Adam. We thought y...you were dead." she was clinging to him for dear life.

Adam was trying hard not to cry out in pain, his nerve receptors were on fire, even the lightest contact was agony, it was also extremely painful without contact but there was nothing they could do about that, he was clenching his teeth so hard he was sure they would shatter.

Tara pulled back and looked at him.

"Oh Adam, I'm so sorry...I should have understood after the first dream...I'm sorry."

"Tara...I'm ok." he said 'looking' at her through his blind eye.

Everyone else had got to their feet, most had accepted that they were all on the same side (or at least not on opposing sides) though some (namely Spike, Xander, Snape, Draco and Mad Eye) still had their weapons in hand and were glaring daggers at the opposing party.

Adam felt terrible for putting her through so much worry, anyone in their right mind (who wasn't Adam...or possibly Harry) would just be thankful that the ordeal was over, but not him, he just wasn't like that.

Ginny made a small coughing sound behind him.

Tara gently let go of Adam, totally oblivious to the blood from his wounds and the floor now covering her clothes.

Adam turned to Ginny, she looked nervous

"I...I don't really know how to say this...but from what I've heard you've been protecting me...You...You saved my life...and what I really want to say is...thank you."

Adam sent her a smile as she ran into his arms engulfing him in another hug now that Tara had let him go.

Adam wished one of them would realise that he was in serious pain.

* * *

Ginny saw his kind eyes smiling down at her, how could she ever repay him for what he had done.

Ginny continued to stare into his warming face, then it changed, suddenly full of awareness, his eye flicked up full of fear, he spun her around so that they switched positions.

She yelped at the sudden movement, just before she saw a flash of light and his face went rigid.

He started to topple forward before Fred and George caught him and lowered him to the ground.

She looked at him, his back was smoking.

She spun around to see James standing in the door way, his staff in his hand.

"You can't kill me that easily." Adam said weakly, so weakly that his voice was barely more than a whisper.

"Unfortunately." his brother replied from his position behind The Order.

Now the two groups may not necessarily agree that they are all on the same side, but they all knew or at the very least had been told that they were not on James's.

Within seconds every wand, staff, axe, sword, crossbow and hand (if you were Willow or Tara) was levelled in his direction.

James chuckled.

"A bit defensive aren't we?" he said mockingly, he looked to his brother, who was still smoking on the ground, Fred, George at his sides and Hermione and Tara kneeling in front of him.

"Looks like you've got yourself some help there brother...I especially like these two." he said gesturing to Hermione and Tara "They look like they may die for you."

"My Guardian Angels." Adam replied even weaker than before, humour evident in his voice, he could not last much longer.

"Well they won't be your angels for very long."

James moved his staff to attack, but he was a fraction of a second too slow.

He received five simultaneous hits to the chest, and as the five casters were five of the most powerful witches and wizards in the world he was most certainly going to feel it.

The curses flew from Hermione, Ginny, McGonagall, Tara and Willow (who although still dark had managed to get some control back to the extent that her eyes were back to normal and only her hair was still black).

James flew through three walls; Hermione's earlier attack was made to look like shots fired from a pea shooter compared to this full power barrage.

"That one's going to hurt when he wakes up." Comment Anya.

McGonagall withdrew a book from his robes and moved to Adam's side.

"Everyone take hold." she said looking to both groups, most of the Sunnydale crew didn't move.

"Adam?" she asked.

"Do it." Adam ordered weakly, they would lose him any second.

McGonagall placed her own hand and Adam's on the book as the Sunnydale crew did the same.

Pointing her wand at it she called out:

"Portus."

And they vanished.

As James slowly got to his feet he surveyed the damage to the building.

He smiled.

"You haven't won yet brother...you may think you hold all the cards, but I still have an Ace up your sleeve."

* * *

AUTHORS NOTE: Sorry it took so long everyone, I had Easter, a week's holiday and being ill all through the above to overcome.


	91. CH91 The Otter And The Unicorn

Chapter 91 – The Otter And The Unicorn

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date: 4__th __October 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Entrance Hall_

_Time: Late Morning_

They landed in the Entrance Hall of Hogwarts, just inside the main doors.

The Sunnydale crew stagger as they landed falling to the ground as they were not used to travelling by portkey.

Buffy (the one from Sunnydale) falls back against one of the walls.

"What in the name of all that is undead was that?" she orders to know one in particular.

"It was a portkey Miss Summers." McGonagall replies from Adam's side.

"How do you..." she was cut off before she could finish as Hermione shouted at Adam, his eyelid had slid shut.

"Wake up!!...Adam!!...WAKE UP!!"

Tara joined her at his side.

Remus moved forward and checked his pulse; sighing he closed his eyes in sadness.

"He's gone."

"NO...noooo." Hermione cried.

Ron knelt down beside her and she immediately threw herself into his arms, sobbing into his chest.

"Adam...Adam." Tara whimpered "Time Lord."

Willow (whose hair was slowly returning to red) moved forward and took Tara in her arms.

There were several moments of silence before Professor McGonagall remembered what the others had not.

Her eyes snapped open and she turned to her star pupil "Miss Granger."

The grieving Gryffindor looked up slowly her face stained with tears.

"Your dream...there is still hope you can save him...the otter can save him."

"Not," sob "Without the Unicorn."

The words triggered Tara's own memory...Adam had called her the unicorn.

"I'm...I'm the unicorn." she announced drawing everyone's attention.

"Of course," Giles said wiping his glasses "Your dream."

"Yes but what about the wings?" Draco asked "You have to give the falcon back his wings...what are the wings?"

Snape, who until now had been exchanging glares with Spike (despite the sad atmosphere) looked around as he worked out what the others had not.

"His magic...you have to return his magic."

All the Hogwarts group were astonished that HE had solved the problem.

"But how?" asked Hermione "I don't know how to do that."

Tara sat up straight, pulling away from Willow.

"I do." she was now glad she had been reading a lot of magic books since her power boost.

"What do I do?" asked Hermione picking up the staff and moving back to Adam's left while Tara returned to his right.

"Is that his?" Tara asked, gesturing to the staff.

"Yes."

"Give it to me, but keep your hand around it. Take his hand." Tara ordered taking his right.

Hermione took his left in her own, gripping it like her life depended on it.

"Now what?" asked Hermione.

Tara lowered the staff to Adam.

"Recursus." Return

Both Tara and Hermione arched their backs, pained expressions crossing their faces.

"Tara!"

"Mione!"

Willow and Ron moved towards their respective partners.

"No."

"Don't touch them." Snape and Giles warned simultaneously.

The two witches stiffened as a white flash of light travelled through the staff, down into the two witches then into Adam.

The witches sagged back into their partners arms.

McGonagall and Remus moved to Adam.

"Adam...Adam are you there?"

No response came for several seconds until his eye slowly opened.

"It appears so." he answered in his normal tone, if not slightly weakened.

He managed to lean up on his elbows only to be enveloped by Hermione and Tara.

They had both unfortunately again forgotten that although he now had his powers back, he was still only just in one piece, in the fact that:

His skin was half gone and the rest was either burnt of pealing,

He had one eye and he was blind,

He had no finger on his left hand,

And no hand on his right arm.

But more importantly they had forgotten that he was in a great deal of pain, something their very enthusiastic hug certainly reminded him of.

"ARRRGH!!"

They both pulled back immediately.

"Oh God...I'm so sorry,"

"Really sorry, it's just that,"

"We didn't mean to hurt you,"

"You were dead and now you're not, are you ok?"

"How badly are you hurt?"

"Is there anything we can do?"

He raised his hand to stop their babbling apologies.

"I'm ok," this earned a few snorts that was one thing they were sure he was not "I've felt better, argh I," he groaned raising a hand to his head "By the gods, I hate dying...at least it wasn't as bad as last..."

He was cut off by a crashing sound behind them.

Buffy two (from Sunnydale) had just backed into a suit of armour as she for the first time saw her doppelganger (for a Slayer she's not very observant).

This act also drew the other Buffy's attention to the Hogwarts Buffy, when she saw her doppelganger she had a very similar reaction.

"Who?"

"What?"

"What are you?"

"I'm Buffy, what are you?"

"I'M Buffy!!"

"Ladies calm down." Remus interrupted moving to the Hogwarts Buffy "I'm sure there is a perfectly reasonable and simple explanation for all this.

Most of the assembled company turned to look at him.

There was NEVER a simple explanation.

* * *

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date: 4__th __October 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Hospital Wing_

_Time: Late Morning_

In the Hospital Wing Adam, Hermione, Tara, Ginny, Kingsley and Moody are in beds along with those who had been there since Adam's disappearance.

Ginny, Kingsley and Moody were fine but Madam Pomfrey insisted on checking them out and it was only thanks to McGonagall that Moody was taking the potions given to him.

Hermione and Tara were just drained since their power levels had been returned to normal.

Adam was another matter entirely; Madam Pomfrey almost had a heart attack when he was brought in. Skin ripped off, pealing and charred, multiple slashes and cuts all over his body including to his throat, blood running freely, fingers gone, an arm gone, an eye gone AND to top it all off...blind.

He had been fed so many potions in the last five minutes that they had all lost count.

The bleeding had stopped and his wounds were closing (although it would take a while for them to heal fully and there would be scars from most).

But his sight, eye and arm were another matter; there was nothing she could do about them.

The fingers were small and simple enough to be regenerated but everything else was a right off.

He was now lying in a bed, his lower half covered with a sheet (he would have had pyjamas on but they would give too much contact to the skin and that was a bad idea until it was fully healed). If anyone had looked closely they would have seen that the he wasn't actually touching the bed or the sheet, they were being held a millimetre away from his skin, Madam Pomfrey knew some useful charms.

In the room at the moment other than the bed ridden were McGonagall, Snape, Remus, Ron (who was sitting between Hermione and Ginny's beds), Draco (who was sitting on the other side of Ginny's bed), both Delacour's (sitting between Harry and Fleur's beds) and the Scoobies who were not quite believing half of what they were seeing.

"I know you are not well Professor," began Madam Pomfrey "But I need to know if you are aware of any way to revive the Headmaster and Professor's Potter and Delacour?"

"What have you tried?" Adam asked tiredly.

"Every conceivable restoring agent that I know, no charms or potion seems to be able to revive them."

Adam thought for a second before turning to Snape.

"Professor, do you have any juice from the Black Poppy in your stores?"

"Black Poppy juice. Yes, a small amount." He replied after a moment's thought, it was a strange ingredient to ask for, it was a Wizarding plant with no relation to Muggle Poppies that was used to send people into deep sleeps, it was not used often because there was the risk that it could induce comas.

"Enough for three full standard size test tubes?"

"Yes."

"Then please summon it, each of them needs one, followed immediately by a Pepper-Up Potion."

Snape drew his wand and gestured towards the door.

A minute later he opened them just long enough for as a small bottle to enter the room, coming to a stop in his hand.

Turning to Madam Pomfrey he filled the three test tubes before helping to administer them to the three.

In less than thirty seconds all had been shocked awake by the steam pouring out of their ears.

"Incredible." Beamed Madam Pomfrey, immediately fusing over her patients "How does it work?"

"It's a special immobilising charm which prevents you from waking the victim unless they are sent further into sleep first. Black Poppy juice can do that as you only need a slightly sleepier patient in order to bring them back around. It's rather brilliant when you think about it."

"So where the bloody hell are we?" exclaimed Spike, unable to remain quiet anymore. Giles had been sending the Scoobies subtle 'wait' and 'be patient' messages but Spike being Spike was not prone to doing what he was told.

"Spike, don't swear." Dawn chastised as most of the room turned to look at the Scoobies "See what you've done now, everyone's looking at us."

"You are at Hogwarts." came the response from the recently awakened Dumbledore.

"Hogs...what's?" she asked.

"Hogwarts." Dumbledore repeated "Allow me to formerly introduce myself; I am Professor Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

Tara and Willow's eyes lit up.

It suddenly dawned on them, that's why the stakes they had been wielding were a bit on the scrawny side...they were wands...they actually used wands.

"You teach magic here?" Willow asked.

"Indeed. Mr. Weasley, a demonstration please?"

Ron withdrew his wand and levitating the flowers beside Hermione's bed.

"Cool." Dawn smiled.

Dumbledore smiled, Dawn already liked this guy, he looked like a skinny Santa Claus.

"Please forgive me for seeming a little confused but a lot seems to have happened during my absence. Severus, would you mind awfully if..."

"Of course Headmaster," the Potions Master replied, drawing his wand again and pointing it at his head, the group watched as he drew a long wisp of silver from his head, touched it to the Headmasters wand where it spilt in two and both returned a wisp to their heads. In the background Tonks was doing the same for Harry and Fleur.

The Headmaster stood still for a few seconds before looking up and opening his eyes.

"Thank you Severus," he nodded "Now, where were we?"

"Err...What did you just do?" Willow asked timidly.

"Severus had given me a copy of some of his memories from the past week, explaining what happened after myself and the other professor's were rendered unconscious. Continuing introductions this is Professor McGonagall, Transfiguration teacher and Head of Gryffindor House."

"Pleasure." the woman greeted.

_She looks nice enough._ Thought Dawn.

"Wait, what's transfiguration?" Buffy Two asked

"The changing of one object into another." Willow supplied.

"Oh."

Dumbledore turned to continue "Professor Snape, Potions Master and Head of Slytherin House."

Snape snorted in response.

_Geez_ Thought Dawn _What's up with tall dark and greasy? He could probably match Angel for broodiness._

Dawn leaned over to Buffy (Sunnydale Buffy) and whispered "Who put the stake up Cranky Pants ass."

Unfortunately she said it the tiniest bit too loud.

This earned a glare from Snape and chuckles from Ron, Harry, McGonagall, Remus, Buffy one, Buffy two, Draco, Adam and Dumbledore as well as more glares for all who laughed.

The Buffy's were trying their best to hide their snickering while trying to look like they disapproved...needless to say they were failing.

"Moving on," the Headmaster continued "Professor Lupin, Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher."

"Call me Remus." Willow nearly jumped out of her skin when she looked at him properly now that they were in full light rather than the half light of Voldemort's castle.

"You're a werewolf!" she said only after realising that that was probably not the best thing to say out loud.

The Hogwarts group not including Adam and Buffy stared at Willow in surprise.

"How did you..." Remus began.

"Your aura...I used to date a werewolf. I recognise the pattern, though it's slightly different it's still roughly the same."

The Hogwarts group (excluding those mentioned above) were not quite sure if they should be relieved or worried.

She could see auras only the really powerful like Adam and Dumbledore could do that. They all recalled the discussion in Professor Dumbledore's office a few weeks previously when they discovered Buffy was a witch.

"Moving on again this is Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody, retired Auror and former Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher."

"Sort of." Moody growled out, he wasn't trying to be threatening it was just his usual tone, though the Scoobies did not know that, Dawn and a couple of the others recoiled slightly as his spinning eye focused on them.

"Sort of?" Spike asked, the slightest hint of interest was heard in his voice.

"A doppelganger of sorts." Dumbledore contributed.

"Can we not use the word doppelganger please?" asked Xander alternately looking between the two Buffy's "Every time we have encountered one thing's never go well."

Dumbledore chuckled "As you wish...simply put it was an enemy in disguise, he kept the real Alastor locked up for the entire year, so he was a Professor but he never actually did any teaching."

"Well that's one way to get out of work." said Spike, earning a chuckle from Dumbledore.

"I would get up but I have been ordered into this bed." Moody glared at Madam Pomfrey with his magical eye that was still 'wigging' out some of the Scoobies.

Ron leaned over to Hermione and Harry and whispered "So much for constant vigilance." which earned a snicker from Hermione and Adam (thanks to his exceptional hearing which the others all thought was getting slightly creepy).

"What's an Auror?" asked Anya.

"Wizard Policeman." Explained Hermione.

"In and around the beds we have Miss Virginia Weasley a fifth year student who has unfortunately just been through a very traumatic experience."

"Call me Ginny and I don't want to disagree sir, but I have hardly been through a very traumatic experience, I just spent a few days asleep...if anything I feel refreshed...thank you again Adam." she said turning to him smiling.

"It was my pleasure."

"Next to her we have Mr Harry Potter a very remarkable sixth year student..."

Snape snorted earning a disapproving scowl from all those who knew Harry.

"And Duelling Master."

"Just Harry." he corrected, during the conversation Ron and Hermione had quickly update Fleur and himself as to what had happened.

"You're a Professor AND a student?" asked Giles.

"Yes, the Headmaster thought I was someone else while I was using a legal second identity as a disguise. He hired me so I could teach myself to duel and I...'accidentally' forgot to tell him." He chuckled.

"I did that for a bit too." added Willow.

"Lady Fleur Delacour, History of Magical Creatures Professor."

"And my Mate." Added Harry.

"Hello." She smiled.

"Why do I get the feeling that the 'M' in mate was capitalised?" asked Giles.

"Because it was," Fleur replied "I am only three quarters Human, the last quarter is Veela and Veela can choose a mate and bind their soul to them if they choose."

"Fascinating." Smiled Giles.

Anyone who had been watching Dawn closely would have seen that when Harry was introduced that her eyes locked on him and she sighed contently.

The only ones to notice this happened to be the two Buffy's.

Both of them recognised the look she was sending him.

It was the same look she gave Angel every time they meet.

The 'Oh my god this guy is gorgeous' look.

Though both Buffy's were having different thoughts on the subject.

Buffy one, having known Harry for a while was thinking.

_If I had to choose a boy friend for my sister it would be him, if only he wasn't already taken._

Buffy two on the other hand was thinking.

_If this boy misbehaves I'm going to break both his arms off and beat him to death with his own fists._

Though the latter's though changed when Fleur was introduced:

_If this boy misbehaves I will tear his arms off and let his mate beat him to death with his own fists._

"Comte Delacour and his wife Delphine," continued Dumbledore "Member of the French Wizarding government and Fleur's parents."

"Mr Ronald Weasley, another sixth year, Miss Weasley's brother and the best chess player this school has known for many years."

"Oooo, a challenge." Willow said excited "I've never met anyone except Dawn who can match me at chess."

Dawn would have blushed if she hadn't been staring intently at the strange scar on Harry's head.

Ron also smiled at the thought of a worthy challenge.

"We'll have to arrange a game."

"Next we have Miss Hermione Granger by far the cleverest student of her age at Hogwarts."

Hermione blushed.

"And my girlfriend." Ron added, drawing her attention, she gave him a look that clearly said 'is that right'.

"I do not recall you actually asking." she replied folding her arms.

"Ok then, consider this the question." he said in a rare display on spontaneity, getting down on one knee "Hermione...will you go out with me?"

Hermione was speechless; he asked her...he actually asked her, talk about timing, he had to do it in front of over a dozen people.

"Yes...yes I will."

Ron engulfed her in a very tight hug followed by a passionate kiss, Hermione briefly saw Adam wink at her over Ron's shoulder.

"About bloody time." Harry whispered to Ginny.

Some members of the room were tearing up or getting closer to their respective partners.

Others like Snape had very different opinions.

"Headmaster do you mind if I depart...I'm getting nauseous."

Needless to say that put a damper on the romance causing Ron and Hermione to separate.

"Carrying on," Dumbledore said smiling at the pair "We had Draco Mal..."

"Holy coholy!" Anya exclaimed "Its Spikes 'mini-me'."

That drew all eyes to Draco.

Spike looked like he had seen a ghost.

"Spike are you ok?...SPIKE?" asked Buffy two.

He turned and walked out of the room.

"Spike!" Buffy asked again, following after him.

He didn't get very far as just outside the hospital wing was a very large window over looking the grounds and since they entered the wing about half an hour ago, the sun had moved around and now flooded the entire corridor.

Spike started to walk into the light without even realising and only stopped when his hand started smoking.

"Argh!!" he exclaimed looking down at his hand then at the light blocking the passage "...Balls."

Buffy two followed him out.

"Spike...what is it?"

"A bad dream." he replied leaning against the wall, arms folded.

"Spike...explain!" the last word was an order not a request.

Spike sighed and walked back into the Hospital Wing.

Everyone looked at Spike expectantly, including Draco who was just recognizing the similarities.

"When I was human my full name was William James...Malfoy."

* * *

Draco was in shock, his eyes were fixed on Spike, he looked so familiar but he couldn't seem to remember from where, he said he was related but he actually remembered his face from somewhere.

The silence was broken by Adam.

"D.T.C."

"The what now?" Xander asked.

"Indeed." agreed Dumbledore "Could you expand on that point please."

Adam turned his head to them.

"Dimensional Temporal Correction. i.e. D.T.C."

"I think I understand." Hermione said, sitting straight up.

Adam smiled, he should have guessed, he wondered how long it would be before Willow picked up what was going on, if she gets this right he'd be very impressed, all he had said was the name of the phenomenon.

"Go on then Hermione...You will probably be able to explain it better than me."

She smiled and blushed at his confidence.

"Well, if I understand you correctly, when you and Buffy came through the portal, you didn't cross from one dimension into another dimension as we thought, you actually pulled the dimensions together, they merged into one, in doing so the time..."

"Wait, wait." Xander interrupted "Dimensions merged?"

"When Buffy and Adam came through the portal." she explained.

"But they didn't go through the portal." Willow argued.

"Correction," said Adam "Not all of us did, some of us remained but most of us came through. That part I worked out a little while ago when I first realised I didn't have as much power as I should have."

"So what your saying is," Buffy one guessed "That when we came through the portal, our bodies, a copy of our bodies were left in Sunnydale." Adam nodded "And we were buried and had funerals and stuff." she turned to Willow who nodded "Then you tried to raise us using the Right of...of..."

"Osiris." Harry contributed.

"Right right, and I came back obviously, which is why there are two me's." She guessed.

"Dear lord." Giles exclaimed rubbing his glasses at the thought of two troublesome Slayers running around at the same time as Dawn groaned.

"Oh great, now I have two sisters telling me what to do."

Dumbledore and several of the Scoobies laughed at her statement as the Buffy's glared.

"But I was too powerful to be brought back that way," added Adam "So a powerless copy of my body is still buried in Sunnydale."

"The explanation sounds about right." Willow confirmed.

"Hey how did you know about the Right?" Anya asked.

"When you performed the Right of Osiris a portal opened and tried to suck us through," Adam explained "In the end it took some of my magic and Buffy's Slayer strength."

"It took Buffy's strength?" Xander repeated "So she's all weak now."

"Hey!!" Buffy protected "I still got my Slayer speed and senses...Plus a few other things." Buffy argued, not wanting to seem weaker than the other her.

"What were you saying Miss... Granger was it...about the Dimensional Temporal Correction." Giles asked.

"Please, call me Hermione, where did I get to...Oh yes, the merger, like I was saying when the portal opened it used Adam's magic to seal the damage done by him trying to get to Buffy in time, in doing so our two dimensions became one, and if I am correct in understanding the Professor."

Adam cleared his throat.

"Sorry, Adam. If I understand ADAM correctly then he is saying that the history of both our dimensions are rewriting themselves together so that they fit as if they were always were one."

She finished, Adam just smiled.

"You really are the cleverest witch of your age."

She blushed even deeper than before, while Ron looking on proudly.

"But it's still not possible." Willow countered "They are from different dimensions, they can't be related."

Adam raised an eye brow "Can't they?"

He turned to Spike.

"Did you have any siblings?"

"Yeah...Younger sister and older brother."

"What happened to them." he asked

"I killed them." he answered instantly, before his face creased up in confusion "No...wait..., they were magical, I couldn't get near them, it's bloody hard to kill someone who can set you on fire in the blink of an eye...my mother was a Muggle that's how I managed to turn her, I was a Squib."

* * *

Everyone was staring at Spike intently.

Snape was curious, what did he mean by eat and turn.

"That's not possible I remember killing them...I remember!" Spike said slightly louder arguing with his own memories.

Snape whipped out his wand upon realising the truth.

"Vampire!" he hissed aiming his wand at Spike and moving in front of Dumbledore protectively, when he said the word, Draco, Ron and Harry moved in front of Ginny and Hermione.

"Severus!" Dumbledore said calmly "I'm sure our new friends would not have brought him if he were not on our side."

"It's true, he's on our side." Dawn contributed, moving protectively in front of Spike.

"He's been neutered." Explained Anya.

"Hey!!" Spike exclaimed, moving from the wall, Snape's hand tightened as his wand followed him "I have not been bloody neutered...You'll be calling me a eunuch next."

Xander attempted to quell a snicker, Spike turned to him.

"Watch it whelp."

"Could you please elaborate on his...safeness." Dumbledore requested.

"There is a chip in his head." Buffy one explained before the other Buffy took over.

"He can't hurt anyone, without getting mind splitting migraines."

Xander looked between the two of them.

"Could you not do that...please, it's very confusing."

"Severus," Dumbledore said calmly "Lower your wand."

The others all lowered theirs, Snape was about a second slower and sent Spike a warning glance that said very clearly 'Don't try anything'.

"Anyway," Giles said cleaning his glasses and looking at Spike "I'm sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for your memory problem."

Xander was about to jump in with a comment when Willow cut him off by exclaimed "I GET IT!"

Adam smiled, he knew she wouldn't be too far behind Hermione; he could have placed bets on it.

"When the dimensions merged our version of history and theirs mixed together, so in this dimension you're his Vampire uncle."

"Correct," nodded Adam "The reason Spike remembers both histories is because the dimensions fixed the timeline problems on a case by case basis, up until the point that I asked about Spike's relatives he would not have even considered the possibility that they were Magical and that their line survived."

There was the sound of something dull hitting the floor.

They all turned to see Draco lying on the ground where he fainted; Ginny was instantly beside him trying to waken him.

"Draco...Draco!"

"He's no relation of mine."

"You're his uncle." Dawn countered.

"He bloody fainted; I will not be related to anyone who faints."

"Don't swear." Hermione responded automatically before gasping when she realised she had just told a complete stranger not to swear.

Spike raised his eyebrow.

"Miss no Miss." he said in mock salute, causing a ripple of laughter.

Hermione blushed Adam raised his arm weakly.

Trying not to laugh Dawn turned back to Spike.

"Well he did faint and you are his uncle, so live with it."

"Not living with it would be preferably," suggested Xander shortly before Dawn hit him.

Though he obviously wasn't at full strength Adam struggled to move his arm so that it was pointed in Draco's direction.

Raising it he floated Draco off the floor and onto Ginny's bed, Ginny moving on to the bed beside him while Ron tried not to react.

"Adam your weak, don't do any magic yet." Tara ordered.

"Yes Miss." Adam replied with a smile, mimicking Spike's earlier mock salute, albeit a lot slower.

"Wait." Willow interrupted "How did you know where he fell...your bl...I mean you're..." she hesitated attempting to avoid using the word.

"You can say it." he reassured her.

"Visually challenged?" Harry suggested.

"Very tactful Harry." Dumbledore replied with a smile before looking to Adam for his answer.

"There are other ways of seeing." he replied slyly, obviously not planning on saying any more.

Draco moaned as he regained consciousness "What happened?"

"You fainted you bloody poof...You call yourself a Malfoy?"

"Spike." both Buffy's chastised.

Draco got to his feet, groaning slightly at the headache he now had.

"So let me get this straight, you're my what, great, great uncle or something?"

"You tell me." The vampire returned.

"What were your brother's and sister's names?"

"Edward Charles Malfoy and Elizabeth Catherine Malfoy."

Draco began counting on his fingers "Great, great, GREAT uncle." he concluded.

"Well lucky me, I have relatives." Spike quipped.

* * *

AUTHORS NOTE: I'm not overly happy with this chapter, but I can't think how to get all the information and introductions written down in a way that I would be happy with.


	92. CH92 The Birth Of Anne

Chapter 92 – The Birth Of Anne 

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_New Information Received...Dimensional Temporal Correction Data._

_Dimension 165 – Earth has merged with Dimension 563 – Earth_

_New Dimensional Definition...1375 – Earth_

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date: 4__th __October 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Hospital Wing_

_Time: Late Morning_

"Continuing on." Dumbledore continued "We have introduced ourselves, would you care to do the same?"

"Of course." Giles began "My name is Rupert Giles, I am Buffy's," his eye's flickered between the two of them) "Watcher, this is Alexander Harris a Construction Worker."

"Xander." he corrected.

"Anya Emerson also known as Anyanka a Vengeance Demon,"

Snape and the same group as before raised their wands, but this time Buffy one also looked up sharply.

"Here we go again." mumbled Dawn.

"When did you become a demon again?" Buffy asked.

"Xander left me at the altar." Anya answered with a scowl at Xander.

"You were getting married!" Buffy one exclaimed "God, how much did I miss during my not-a-death?"

The total lack of concern on most of the assembled group's faces had caused most of the wand aiming party to lower their weapons, only Snape still had his up.

"Not much." Anya began "Sunnydale overrun by demon's, the Buffybot getting repaired then ripped apart, your resurrection, the big sing a long, Amy the not a rat, Willow the Magic Junky, Riley the married, my not-a-wedding, Giles leaving, Giles coming back, the other you becoming a mental case,"

Willow was holding her breath, she was praying Anya wouldn't mention her little destroy the world moment.

"Warren, Jonathan and what's his name, the other one."

"Andrew." Buffy two supplied.

"Right, them attempting and failing to take over Sunnydale by turning you, the other you invisible, making you go through time loops and other assorted madness and two of them getting caught."

You could have heard a pin drop, Willow let out a sigh of relief which unfortunately got Anya's attention.

"And you and Tara getting shot, dieing and coming back to life,"

Willow squeezed her eyes shut.

_Please don't say it, pleeeaasssee._

"And finally Willow killing Warren, starting an apocalypse and trying to destroy the world."

The words 'you could hear a pin drop' did not even describe the lack of sound, this was another anti-sound moment.

Buffy one attempted to speak.

"You...you...you tried...tried to...des...destroy...the world?"

Willow gave a nervous grin.

"I've repented." she said embarrassed.

"Why?"

"She thought I was dead." Tara said from her sitting position on Adam's bed, the Hogwarts group and Buffy one spun around.

"What?" Buffy said again

"Like Anya said...Warren shot me and the other you...Willow brought the other you back from the brink...I..." she began to falter "...I died...Apparently the magic's that I got from Adam when we conducted The Right brought me back to life." she turned to Adam "Why...why did your magic come to me?"

Adam turned to her with a large smile.

"It came to the person I trusted the most."

Tara blushed, he trusted her with his magic.

"How powerful is your magic?" asked Ron.

"You already know, you have seen the power Hermione had, that is the best comparison I can give you, in reality Hermione had more than Tara simply because she had my staff, though Tara was more powerful to begin with."

This caused Hermione to remember that she still had her staff, HIS...his staff in her hand.

"Oh, sorry I forgot." she said withdrawing his disk and handing it and his staff to him "These are yours."

He slowly leaned over and took them; a white light engulfed his body, presumably emanating from the staff as his hands closed around them.

When the light died down he looked a lot better than he had done, his skin was no longer pealing and had scabbed over, as had all the cuts.

"That feels better."

"Extraordinary." Giles commented "Anyway this is Spike as you already know, also called William The Bloody, this is Buffy's sister Dawn."

Hermione's eye's snapped to Dawn.

"You're The Key?"

All the Scoobies weapons snapped up and Dawn was pushed back behind Giles, Buffy two and Spike who had almost been forgotten about he was so still.

Buffy one immediately moved forward.

"Hey guys it's ok, it's ok, Adam told them about Dawn."

Their eyes flickered to Adam.

"It was necessary to explain how we came to be here." Adam continued "And these people are going to tell no one. May I also suggest that we stop raising weapons every time someone says something that could be potentially dangerous, everyone in this room is on the same side."

Draco and some of the Gryffindor's exchanged looks as did Xander and Spike.

Willow and Tara were the first to lower their arms, dissipating the magic they had been gathering, the other Scoobies did the same with their weapons though considerably slower.

"Continuing on, this is Willow Rosenberg and Tara Maclay who are both Wicca's"

No one in the room had ever seen Hermione move so fast; she sat up in the bed so quickly that Ron sitting next to her almost toppled out of his seat.

"You're Wicca's!!" she said a bit too loudly.

She wasn't the only one reacting to this news though; the entire Hogwarts group except Adam, Buffy, Ron and Harry had also turned their heads to look at one of the witches.

"So that's what you meant when you said your witches and wizards don't use wands."

Willow and Tara were looking confused.

"What's so special about Wiccan magic?" asked Willow.

"The knowledge of Wiccan magic was lost in this dimension millennia ago." Hermione explained.

"Or it had until the merger." Added Adam.

"Oh." Willow responded "Well maybe we could teach you some."

"Really?" Hermione looked like Christmas had come early, which earned smiles from all that knew her.

"Yeah, you could be floating pencils by the end of the week... without wands that is."

"And last but by no means least," Giles tried again "Buffy Anne Summers the Vampire Slayer, but I guess you may already know that."

"Ours is technically Professor Buffy Anne Summers, Muggle Defence Instructor and the Witch who is a Vampire Slayer without the Slayer strength." Added Adam.

Most of the Scoobies looked at Buffy as if they had just gone off their rockers.

"You're a Professor?"

"You're a Witch?"

"You actually know how to teach?"

"Hey!!" Buffy exclaimed at the last one, aiming a glare at Xander, the source of the last remark.

"She's very good." Contributed Hermione "Really, we're learning lots from Buffy and Adam."

"Oh yeah?" said Spike doubtfully from his position back leaning against the wall.

"Yeah!" countered Ginny standing up.

Spike raised his eyebrows at her and stalked towards her, as the others moved to intervene Adam sent them subtle gestures telling them to do nothing, this was going to be good.

"Come on then 'Little Red'," he taunted as he reached her and threw a couple of light punches her way "Show me what you've OOOWWWW!! AARRGGHH!!"

The previous exclamations had been caused by Ginny's determination to prove that Buffy was a good teacher and Spike seriously underestimating Buffy's skills at teaching unarmed combat.

Ginny had dodged the weak punches he threw her way by ducking left then right (an easy task as they were not meant to collide), before punching him in the gut with a lot more force than he expected causing him to double over followed by a hit to the back with her elbow making him land on the floor in a heap of humiliation.

Most of the assembled company were doing their best not to laugh, except Xander who was making no effort to hide his amusement.

"The great William the Bloody bested by a teenager."

"Watch it whelp." Snarled Spike as he jumped back to his feet, trying to salvage what he could of his pride.

"Or what?" he countered sniggering "You try anything I'll set the girl on you."

Ginny was thinking at this point that it was just as well that the vampire did underestimate her as that attack had used up most of her repertoire of moves.

"Getting back to the point," interrupted Buffy one "How exactly are we going to solve the problem of the two me's, as much as I like having both me's around it may get a bit confusing."

"Can we stop with all the pronouns?" Pleaded Xander rubbing his head. "It's seriously destroying my mind."

"I think I may have the solution to the problem," Dumbledore began, all eyes turned to him, including Snape's, even he was curious to know what the Headmaster had thought up this time.

"I would have thought it was obvious," they all continued to look on in ignorance, although some looked more ignorant than others "One of you changes your name."

Some of the assembled group smiled as he spoke.

Of course, it is so simple, why had they not thought of it.

"Ok but which one?" asked Xander "I mean how do we decide?"

"I think our Buffy would be the more likely choice." said Adam.

"Yeah," nodded the other one "It would make sense, she's not me anymore, she's changed, she doesn't have my Slayer strength and she can do the Magic thing."

"You can actually do magic?" Giles asked, bringing the subject back up again.

"Yeah, apparently all Slayers are Witches but Slayer strength covers it up and it's only since I lost my slay girl strength I can do magic."

She withdrew her wand and pointed it at Spike.

"Hey Slayer," said the suddenly nervous vampire "What are you...?

"Wingardium Leviosa."

Spike tried to jump out of the way but the spell caught him mid leap.

"What the!! Put me down you wand waving maniac!!"

Most of the Scoobies were staring shocked or clapping excitedly.

"Way to go Buffy!" applauded Willow "Can you turn him over?"

"Slayer, don't you daOOWWW!!"

He was cut off when Buffy spun him around a bit too fast and his head collided with the ground.

"Do it again!!" smiled Anya.

"Don't bloody do it again!!"

"As entertaining as this is," sighed Giles rubbing his glasses "Shouldn't we continue with the discussion?"

"You are quiet correct Mr Giles," agreed Dumbledore "Back to the subject at hand."

The Buffy's moaned in disappointment, before Buffy one spoke up.

"Anyway, why do I have to be the one that changes names, she's the one that has died twice, I've only died once, I'm the original."

"You're the one from another dimension with all the magic's." Countered Buffy two "I still have all the Slayer goodies.

"I'm older than you."

"Only by a few weeks, I know my friends better than you."

"MY friends, and that's only because I was sent to another dimension while you had a few weeks of sleep."

"Stop!! Stop!!" shouted Xander, bravely stepping in between the two Buffy's who had been walking towards each other since the start of the argument "Chill out girls."

Both the Buffy's glared at each other before the conversation continued.

"Right back to the choice at hand," tired Dumbledore "As for..."

"Anyway what name would she take?" Buffy one interrupted.

The other Buffy tried to argue back but Giles got their first.

"I thought your middle name would be the most obvious choice, that way you," looking to Buffy two "Would be Buffy Anne Summers and you," turning back to Buffy one "Would be Anne Buffy Summers."

"So you would both be Buffy but in a different order." Continued Willow.

"Precisely." Agreed Giles "That way you are not really giving up your name and it also protects Anne as the Slayer without the strength from vampires and demons who want to kill the legendary Buffy as even though she has got magic, without her strength she is vulnerable if a demon manages to get close to you."

"I still don't like it." Buffy one (Anne) protested.

"That's settled then." Smiled Buffy two (Buffy) before turning to her dark haired sister "Hey Dawn," she smiled "You get to have two of me around."

"Great." She groaned.

* * *

AUTHOR NOTE: Sorry it took so long, this is another chapter I am not overly happy with but I hope you enjoy it.


	93. CH93 Tempus Fugit

Chapter 93 – Tempus Fugit 

The Scoobies had decided to stay at Hogwarts for a few weeks; especially now that they had found their friends (or to be more precise Tara had found Adam) again, so they didn't want to leave too soon. They were not too worried about Sunnydale as Chlem had promised to call them if anything came up and Angel was going to pop in now and then to check on the place.

The urge to stay was increased when the rumour was spread that a ball was to be held for Halloween in the Scoobies honour as a thank you for their help with the rescue.

As soon as Buffy, Willow, Dawn and Anya heard about the Halloween Ball they had rushed into Hogsmeade to buy appropriate dresses (courtesy of the schools accounts), the rest of the school would have to stick with the dresses from the last school event, though some were obviously ordering more as the mail owl's, which had scared the life (or death in Spike's case) out of most of the Scoobies when they first saw them, kept bringing in large boxes.

The next day was reassuringly dull, or rather duller than the average day at Hogwarts; there were no battles, no creatures sneaking about the pipes trying to kill them, no escaped convicts breaking in, just a few Americans and a middle-aged Brit accompanied by a British Vampire. It caused even more excitement when it was discovered that several of the Americans were Muggle's and the others were, a demon, another Slayer and a pair of Wicca's, all these mysterious people gathered together in the castle had caused the entire school to go mad with intrigue, especially as they had not officially been announced as guests of the castle yet (in other words they were just there and none of the Professors had said anything about them).

The Scoobies had all been given guided tours which Harry had been volunteered to give, with Fleur and the rest of the 'Gryffindor Three' helping him. They had spent hours walking around, asking questions while he answered them all as best as he could with Ron, Fleur or Hermione contributing whenever he missed something out or they drifted towards subjects of their liking such as Quidditch, history or lessons.

While they were staying Tara and Willow had agreed to teach some of the student's Wiccan magic while Buffy, Spike and Giles agreed to help in Muggle Defence classes. In fact all the Scoobies had managed to get involved somehow, when Giles, Buffy and Spike weren't helping in MD they and Anya agreed to assist Fleur in History Of Magical Creatures, bringing their insights in Demons and Vampires to the class (something Spike enjoyed as it meant he could be scary again even if he could not bite the students.)

Likewise Xander and Dawn had been caught by the Muggle Studies Professor and roped into his class as real life examples of Muggle's who lived around Magic but did not need it to go about their lives (outside of fighting the forces of darkness that is), this also helped because as they noted when entering the class most of the Pure-Blood students there thought that Muggle's still used Crossbows, spears and horses to fight and they were able to contribute greatly to the classes knowledge of the Muggle World, though none believed that they was telling the proof about men walking on the moon and getting there in a metal firework, what a ridiculous thing to say.

* * *

The biggest surprise to all came twenty four hours after the rescue when Lylacor and Mystique came charging into the castle. The Scoobies all felt very embarrassed that they had forgotten the animals and left them outside the castle on the moor dealing with what they had discovered later were called Death Eaters, they had insisted on coming to their masters aid, of course they only insisted as a dog (sorry, wolf) and a cat can, by constant howling, purring and anything else that would either persuade or annoy the humans so much that they were forced to bring them, Willow had done a little spell to avoid any quarantine issues (none of them had ever travelled with animals before so were not sure how it worked).

The Scoobies also remembered that they had left all their luggage back at their hotel, they had been so preoccupied with everything else they had not even noticed its absence. Dumbledore had sent Remus with them via the Floo Network to collect it, the Werewolf was more than a little of surprised at the amount of weapons they had brought with them, he was amazed they managed to get through Customs without half the British army coming down on them, another spell it turned out which gave him a new respect for the two Wicca's, he knew their magic was powerful but this was more than he had expected.

When the animals arrived they literally leapt on Adam who was so weak from his injuries that he had actually been using his Staff to support his weight rather than as a magical tool. Needless to say that he hit the floor very hard when they landed on him and considering how heavy Lylacor was he suffered quiet the impact; luckily he was built of stronger stuff and just let out a very loud groan.

There had actually been a round of applause when Adam walked into the Great Hall the that morning, he still looked terrible, his face was still dark and slightly misshaped from the burns and cuts, he was sporting several scars to the face and neck (these were the only ones that were visible), the fingers on his left hand had grown back, but the thing that surprised or to be more accurate stunned everyone that knew of his injuries was the fact that he was leaning heavily on the staff with his right arm.

The arm that had been cut off.

He also walked in with two normal coloured eyes.

And as he was supposed to be blind and short one eye this surprised them even more.

When they asked how he did it all he said was.

"Magic."

Much to the annoyance of the others, they knew some powerful glamour spells must have been at work but they would not allow him to touch anything with a non-existent arm.

* * *

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date: 6__th __October 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Outside The Great Hall_

_Time: Morning_

The next morning was to be the first morning that the Scoobies were due to make a proper appearance at the castle, Dumbledore was going to introduce them to the school over breakfast and more than one of them was very nervous.

Tara, Willow and Dawn were especially so and were either pacing up and down or trying to distract themselves, Xander, Giles and Buffy were not overly worried though it was clear to those that knew her that Buffy was not as calm as she let on, Spike of course was not overly bothered by the whole thing and was enjoying the others discomfort, finally there was a very eager Anya who was eager to try to sell some of her Magic Box merchandise (she had brought some with her just encase) to young rich and gullible students.

* * *

Inside the Great Hall the students were talking excitedly, they all knew what was coming as the teachers table had eight extra places laid out.

As such when Dumbledore stood every student in the hall fell silent.

"Good morning Hogwarts. As I am sure you are aware we have some new quests in the castle, they aided us with the dangerous rescues of Professor Berio and Miss Weasley after travelling all the way from America Muggle style, so please give them a warm welcome. The Scoobies!!"

As the doors opened and the group walked in led by Buffy almost the entire hall erupted in applause much to the startled looks of the group.

Walking down the aisles between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables they were reassured by the smiling faces of Ron, Hermione and Ginny.

Reaching the end of the hall they walked to their seats and attempted to sit down, but Dumbledore was not going to let them off that easily.

"I would like to introduce to you from the left we have Mr Alexander Harris, a Construction Worker,"

He awkwardly stood and bowed to the sound of applause and more than one wolf whistle.

"Miss Willow Rosenberg and Miss Tara Maclay, a pair of very powerful Wicca's,"

Another round of applause and even more wolf whistles much to the embarrassment of the pair, the sounds of greeting were also mixed in with the excited whispers of students asking whether they had heard the Professor right and that they really were Wicca's.

"Next to them we have our first local, the British born Mr Spike, who prefers to be known just as Spike, to avoid widespread panic later I will explain now that he is a Vampire and used to be known as William the Bloody, but I stress that he is not going to bite anyone and if you do not annoy him or bring any fire, crosses or stakes anywhere near him he will be most pleasant to you."

Spike snorted at that comment, before Willow and Anya who were on either side of him forced him to stand and bow. There was less applause this time as quite a few of the students were looking at him wearily.

"Next we have Miss Anya Emerson, a Vengeance Demon, she too will not harm you but I must stress that you must never use the words 'I wish' around her."

Anya who had been standing and smiling widely dropped back down into her seat sulking as Dumbledore stomped on any possibility of her having any demonic work while at the school. Even the enthusiastic clapping and more wolf whistles did nothing to improve her mood.

"Following that we have Mr Rupert Giles a British Watcher, and encase you do not know what that is I am sure either he, one of his companions or the Library will answer your questions."

Giles stood and bowed politely.

"Miss Dawn Summers the sister of our very own Professor Summers."

Dawn gave a shy wave before Giles nudged her to her feet to bow properly again accompanied by the sounds of applause and whistles.

"And lastly we have the current Vampire Slayer, Miss Buffy Summers."

Some people clapped but most just looked on in confusion, many noticing what they had not before when they realised they really were seeing two identical people at the head table.

"As I am sure that confused more than a few of you allow me to explain. Professor Summers and Miss Summers are in fact one and the same person, though due to a magical accident some time ago they were split in to two separate beings, Miss Summers retaining the Slayer strength and Professor Summers the ability to do magic. As they too have only just found out about this Professor Summers is changing her name to Anne Summers, and again if you wish to learn more about the Slayer you can ask one of our guests or look in the Library."

More excited mutterings.

"I am also pleased to announce that during their stay they will be assisting in lessons to help explain their individual area of expertise. Mr Harris and the younger Miss Summer's will be assisting in Muggle Studies. Mr Spike, Mr Giles and the elder Miss Summers will be assisting in Muggle Defence classes; they will also be joining Miss Emerson in History of Magical Creatures. Misses Rosenberg and Maclay will be doing some classes in Wiccan Magic, see your Common Room notice board for details and lastly the younger Miss Summers as well as helping in Muggle Studies will be joining some of you in classes. The last thing I want to add is another change in classes. From now on Muggle Defence, Duelling Lessons and meetings of the DA which Professor Potter has revived, legally this time," there was a splattering of chuckles around the room from DA members "Will all be held together."

This definitely got people talking.

"That way each class can benefit from the others as well as helping you to combine fighting styles. With the aid of our guests as well as Professors Potter, Summers and Berio-Megiltura all who attend this class should be most proficient by the end of the school year, again see your notice boards for details."

Seating himself without his usual mad ending the hall excitedly began to discuss what they had just heard, the next few days would be very interesting.

* * *

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date: 7__th __October 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – An Empty Classroom_

_Time: Late Morning_

The following day Willow and Tara were about to conduct their first Wiccan lesson in an empty class room.

"This is a bad idea." Said Willow worriedly as she paced up and down the room "I mean, you don't ask someone who almost destroyed the world because of a magic addiction to teach others how to perform magic."

"You will be ok Willow," catching Willow in mid pace "I'm here for you and you are not going to be teaching them advanced spells, just a few simple shielding and summoning spells. You won't go dark for just that."

"Are you sure, I mean, do you know for certain that it won't be too much, every time I do a spell I get dark roots, it doesn't take a lot to push me over the edge."

"I'm here for you Willow." Calmed Tara, pulling the redhead into a tight hug before brushing her lips with a kiss "Giles trusts you, Dumbledore trusts you, they would not let you teach the students if they thought you would go dark...Trust in yourself."

She finished the sentence off with a longer kiss which lasted until they heard an "Ouch." from the doorway.

Looking around they saw Hermione staring at them in surprise while Ron and Neville rubbed their heads. Ron, having stopped dead at the sight of the pair of very attractive witches kissing each other, resulting in Neville walking straight into the back of him.

"Hey." Said Willow embarrassed, moving away from Tara "Please come in."

The group filtered through the door, most of the men and several of the women stared at them with glazed expressions as they entered. The group consisted of Hermione, Ginny, Harry, Ron, Neville, Luna, quite a few other students (most of whom were DA members), Draco (heaven knows why) and Dawn making over thirty in total, (though Buffy, Anne and Giles didn't know Dawn was there).

"Hey guys," greeted Willow nervously, she and Tara had never expected so many people to show up and both were getting nervous now.

There were several seconds of silence before she spoke again, thirty faces watching her was a little unnerving, her last teaching class was a lot more reluctant to learn...and a lot smaller.

"So...I guess you're all here to learn about Wiccan Magic."

Another pause occurred before Tara came to her rescue.

"Wh...why don't we start with a demon...demonstration." she stuttered, before directing her line of sight towards one of the school bags lying against the wall (the class was sitting on the floor as there would not be room for desks when they started practicing.

Quite a few members of the class gaped as the bag rose off the ground with no word of command and nothing more than a glance of her eyes.

"W...Wiccan magic, has a different source to the Wand Magic you use."

"Your magic comes from within yourselves," Willow continued, now that the initial hurdle had been overcome she could keep the momentum going "Whereas ours relies on our abilities to gather and control Magic from around us and provide it with purpose. Like you we can run out of power when we get too exhausted to pull more magic into us."

"We can store magic within our bodies like you can," continued Tara, the school bag slowly drifting across the room above the heads of the students "But for us it's just holding it until we use it, although we do have magic that occurs naturally in our bodies as you have though we rarely use it to perform whatever task we wish to accomplish, but rather use it to direct the Magic around us to do so, which is why the bag is still floating around and I am not feeling as much of a power drain as you would if you were performing magic."

"Remember that unlike wand magic Wiccan magic comes from around you not within, try to draw it from your surroundings, this being a magic school there is a lot of magic around to use." Tara continued "Split into pairs and attempt to create a shield wandlessly, both Wiccan and Wand Magic use Latin so your normal incantation should work. We will come around and provide help where necessary."

They split in to the obvious pairs Hermione and Ron, Ginny and Draco (now that Ron had finally accepted him...Just) and finally Harry and Dawn, Dawn had become inseparable from Harry and Fleur and was spending almost all of her free time with them and not just because she found Harry attractive, but because she got on very well with both Harry and his mate.

* * *

About ten minutes later Ron was still trying unsuccessfully to create a shield.

"Ron you've got to relax remember, otherwise you won't be able to do it," Hermione reminded him, it was true that none of them had managed to create a shield yet but she knew how much it annoyed Ron when he could not do things.

"Go on then, you do it." he said slightly annoyed, he sounded like he had in first year, Hermione almost laughed at the memory of their first Charms Class.

She shook herself out and closed her eyes, attempting to feel the magic around her, the slight tingle Willow and Tara had told them about as one of the additional pointers crossed her skin.

Good that's going to plan; now she had to focus the magic.

_Wait...its changing...it feels different._

She...she could feel the magic flowing through her.

But that wasn't all; she could feel other concentrations of magic near her.

She felt light headed, she tried to stop, but the magic continued to grow.

It kept growing, expanding, filling her.

She felt herself being pulled away from herself.

She tried to focus on the sounds around her, her friend's voices.

Something was wrong.

They were different.

She opened her eyes.

She looked at Ron.

He wasn't moving.

She looked at the others, they weren't moving.

Wait...They were...they were moving very slowly.

She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to concentrate but closing her eyes showed her even more that her open eyes did.

She could see the room from every angle; it was as if she were standing everywhere at once.

Her other sense were suddenly overloaded by sounds and smells.

The noises were deafening, she heard everything.

The slight shuffle of shoes on the floor.

The slight rubbing of peoples clothes.

The scuttling sound of a small spider moving across the wall, the sound of each of its legs slowly hitting the surface like sledge hammers.

The smells were almost as bad.

She could smell everyone in the room, their scents, unique smells, the perfumes, deodorants and the whiff of a chocolate frog in someone's robes.

Opening her eyes again they were overloaded with colour.

She could see the magic in the room, the magic flowing through everyone, their auras.

Everything.

The lights flashed past her as if she were travelling incredibly fast.

She clutched at her head, the pain was overloading her, she collapsed to the floor screaming as the world accelerated back to its usual speed.

* * *

Tara turned at the scream to see Hermione writhing on the floor.

She ran over the rest of the group right behind her.

"Hermione, HERMIONE." she shouted dropping to the floor beside her just as Willow reached them.

Hermione continued to scream, clutching her head.

Willow dropped to her knees beside her; the rest of the group had gathered around, Harry and Ron were on the ground on her other side.

Willow moved her hand over Hermione and muttered something under her breath and Hermione seized crying out, her head rolled as she left consciousness.

"Quick!" urged Harry "We must get her to the Hospital Wing!"

Harry muttered a spell and Hermione floated between them as the group as one ran through the door and down the corridor.

Draco and Ginny moving ahead to warn Madam Pomfrey of Hermione's plight.

* * *

In his tower Adam was updating his book, now that Willow had returned his Journal he had to update everything out of the new book he had made himself as a replacement. He could do it magically but he enjoyed the sensation of writing.

He felt a lot better than he had just twenty four hours before, Madam Pomfrey was a good Nurse but he had had to conceal the fact that as most of the weapons used were magic based her potions had little effect upon him. If they could see him as he really looked they would see he was still covered in cuts, still one eye short, still armless, fingerless and still blind, but he was not about to tell them any of this.

He did not want them to look on him with sympathy, he was The Guardian, he wasn't allowed to be weak, when people looked on a legend or a myth (and lets face it when you have been around as long as he had that is exactly what you become) they did not want to see a man only just holding himself together, they wanted someone powerful and more importantly someone who looked it.

Half way through a line written in a little known language a sound caught his ear.

A distant scream.

A scream he recognised.

Hermione.

He was out of the door in under a second, summoning his staff to his magically present hand as he went.

* * *

Half way down the last corridor Tara was hit by a wave of senses, her vision was filled with lights, her nostrils filled with scents and her ear drums felt like they would burst; unbeknown to her she was experiencing exactly what Hermione had mere minutes before.

She collapsed to the floor screaming as her world began to spin.

Dawn and Ron had to veer out the way to avoid hitting the collapsed Wiccan.

Willow skidded to a halt and ran back to her lover, almost tripping over on the stone floor in the processs.

"Tara, TARA!!"

The door of the Hospital Wing banged open as Draco, Ginny and Madam Pomfrey ran out, meeting them halfway down the corridor.

The Nurse immediately dropped to the floor next to Tara.

Harry and some of the others continued in to the Wing and placed Hermione on a bed, before a few returned to help with Tara.

Adam threw himself around the corner and dropped to the floor by a still screaming Tara, almost knocking Dawn off her feet.

His hands immediately went to her head and he began chanting.

After about three seconds she calmed and sagged to the floor.

Sighing briefly Adam had but a moment before his arms and legs gave out and he collapsed to the floor beside her.

"Maybe Tara was right...No magic."


	94. CH94 Rewards

Chapter 94 - Rewards

Chapter 94 - Rewards

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date: 7__th __October 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Hospital Wing_

_Time: Noon_

Minutes later in the Hospital Wing.

Dumbledore had arrived as had Buffy and the gang.

Hermione and Tara were sitting up in beds with Ron, Harry and Willow at their sides while Madam Pomfrey fussed over them.

Adam is leaning heavily on his staff by the far wall, having refused a bed.

Dumbledore, the rest of the students that would normally be included in such a gathering, the Scoobies and Anne were standing or pacing the room, Spike being the exception is leaning against the far wall near Adam, out of the sunlight.

Madam Pomfrey sighed and straightened up.

"I can find nothing wrong with them, I...I can't explain it."

"Would you both please describe exactly what happened and what you felt?" asked Dumbledore.

"It happened while I was attempting to create a shield using Wiccan magic," Hermione began "I felt the magic flow through me like it was supposed to, but then it changed, I could feel the magic around me like I was supposed to but I also felt concentrations of magic emanating from Ron and the others. When I opened my eyes everyone was moving in slow motion and...and I could see their auras, my vision increased I could see everything, and not just that, I felt it, heard it and smelt it as well. All my sense overloaded in pain...I never knew a tiny spider could be so noisy."

Ron shivered, while Adam turned to Tara.

"Was it the same for you?"

"Yes, except I wasn't trying to create a shield and everything Hermione said hit me at once."

Adam considered this for a moment before turning his back and looking at the wall, only Spike could see what he was doing.

"If you don't mind Hermione I would like to run an experiment on you, but you have to trust me."

Hermione looked worried.

"Ok." she answered nervously after a seconds pause.

What happened next took less than a second to occur.

As no one could see Adam's face except Spike, most were watching the Vampire's facial expressions for clues as to what he was doing.

Spike's face went suddenly serious then changed to a look of shock at the sight of something in Adam's hands; he then leapt from the wall at Adam.

At the same time Adam raised an arm, Spike froze in mid air and Adam spun around throwing a dagger directly at Hermione's head.

She screamed shutting her eyes and bringing her arms up defensively as many people shouted her name.

After about a second of silence Hermione realised she was not in pain or in fact dead. As collective gasps sounded from around the room she cautiously opened one eye only to leap back at what she saw.

Hovering about ten centimetres from her head was the dagger, it appeared to be trying to force its way through the air but it was not actually moving just vibrating violently.

She looked passed the dagger at Adam, he was smiling.

"Fascinating." commented Dumbledore.

Xander stared at Adam as if he had grown another head, as were most of the population of the room "Are you insane...I am sure if she wanted acupuncture she would have asked for it."

Adam sighed, leaning heavily on his staff and turned to Xander "Don't you remember what happened last time I threw a knife at someone." he said glancing at Willow who subconsciously felt her stomach protectively.

Xander remembering the event in question suddenly went very quiet.

"Do you really believe I would hurt her?"

"If you don't mind me asking," Giles began "What was so fascinating other than the fact that you stopped the knife before it hit her."

"I didn't stop the knife," He replied "Hermione did."

All eyes turned to her as she sunk lower in her bed.

"You see when they described what they felt; it sounded remarkably like some of my power."

"You feel that?" Tara asked in astonishment as he walked over and retrieved the blade "ALL of it?"

He nodded.

"How do you control that...that din?"

"Years of practice and training, which is something I will teach to you, both of you although it shouldn't take years as you are both quick studies and I am only training you to control the input speed and concentration, not to achieve the same state."

"But why do we have your powers, we returned them to you after the rescue." Hermione asked

"I believe that some of my powers are now a permanent part of you, they may be a reward from the Gods for rescuing and reviving me. I am guessing as you are fine now that the Gods deliberately activated your powers so that we became aware of them, with training you should be able to master them and activate them at will."

Hermione and Tara exchanged excited looks.

"Ok."

It was then that Harry noticed something.

"Errr, Adam?" he said, gesturing to the still frozen Spike.

"Oh, of course." he said snapping his fingers.

Spike jumped back to life startled at the fact that Adam had moved.

"What the bloody hell just happened?"

* * *

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date: 7__th __October 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Gryffindor Common Room_

_Time: Evening_

Later that evening in the Gryffindor Common Room Ginny and Hermione were listening to Dawn describing Sunnydale.

"...and as it's on a Hellmouth, all the evil goes there to party: vampires, demons and the odd six or seven apocalypses."

"The odd six or seven!!" Ginny exclaimed "How can you say 'the odd six or seven' about an apocalypse?"

"Well I've seen too many things to be shocked by an apocalypse; it's an everyday occurrence at home, normally happens at least once a year."

"What was the last thing that shocked you then...other than seeing Anne for the first time?" Hermione asked.

"That would be...when I saw my sister getting out of a limo followed by Adam who then proceeded to kiss my hand."

"He kisses every woman's hand." Ginny replied "Doesn't he Hermione...Hermione?"

Hermione was trying to sink back into her chair and discreetly cover up her now very red face.

"Hermione, what is it?" Dawn asked

"Nothing."

"Oh my God." Dawn exclaimed realising.

"What?" Hermione and Ginny asked.

"You kissed him."

"She what?"

"I didn't."

"You did."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't mean to."

"I don't believe it, you actually kissed him."

"I didn't mean to."

"Oh what, you just fell on his lips?"

"Kind of."

"Really?" asked Ginny. Ending the run of short statements.

"I tripped over him and landed in his lap."

"You sat in his lap as well, that's really not fair."

"So how did you kiss him then?" badgered Dawn.

"I tried to get up too quickly and I landed on his lips."

"Lucky." Ginny sulked.

"Is that all?" Dawn asked sceptically.

"Well I started to get up again but then I sort of kissed him."

Dawn actually squealed "You kissed him, how much of a kiss?"

"Was it chased?" Ginny asked

Hermione said nothing.

"More than chased?" asked Ginny.

"Was there tongue?" pressed Dawn.

Hermione squeaked.

"YOU USED YOUR TONGUE!!" Ginny shouted, luckily there was no one else in the Common Room.

"I didn't mean too."

"You didn't mean to stick your tongue down his throat?" Dawn asked sceptically.

"I didn't, I mean I...Oh God."

"Was he good?" Dawn said with a cheeky smile

"DAWN!!" Ginny exclaimed "How can you ask that...Oh hell, just tell us, was he good?"

"GINNY!!"

"Well?"

"...Yes."

* * *

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date: 7__th __October 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Second Floor Corridors_

_Time: Late Evening_

Draco was patrolling the corridors on prefect duty; as usual he was bored stiff and would have liked nothing better than to find a student to break the never ending patrol.

As he moved down another corridor he approached an old disused classroom that he often stopped in for a few minutes to get out of the corridors, with no candles in it, it was excellent place to have a quick kip.

The door was left ajar so he moved inside, not touching the door as it creaked terribly and he did not want Filch to hear and see that he was not patrolling.

Slipping into the room he turned to head for his usual chair only to see the outline of someone already sitting in it.

This was going to be a conversation he had been avoiding for the last three days.

"You just gonna stand there and let the dust settle on you." Said the figure around his cigarette, smoking was something that the Wizarding world as a whole did little of, cigarettes and cigars were Muggle inventions so only people who smoked were those with pipes which was not very many, but regardless Draco knew what was in the white stick in his ancestors mouth.

"You shouldn't smoke in the school." He said idly, dropping down into the seat opposite him and putting his feet up on the desk.

"You gonna stop me?" asked the vampire, razing an eyebrow.

"No, I'm just covering myself encase someone walks in, they can't claim I did not tell you that you weren't allowed. I've got an image to maintain, I can't be seen to be breaking the rules."

Spike snorted.

"You're defiantly a Malfoy. You're as bad as my sister, she always got away with things simply because our father believed she could do no wrong, my brother and I got all the blame, annoying little pixie, thankfully she married at seventeen so we were able to get rid of her."

There were several more moments pause in which Spike finished his fag and flicked the butt out of the open window.

"How are we going to play this?" asked Draco, it was the question that neither wanted to ask and neither wanted to try and answer.

"I'm not looking for relatives." Replied Spike after several seconds.

"Neither am I, the ones I have are bad enough, most want me dead."

"All of my human family are dead," countered Spike "Other than you and your father if he's still alive."

"He's one of those trying to kill me."

"And I thought I had family problems." Snorted Spike "Why's he trying to off you?"

"The Malfoy's believe in purity of blood, he follows a Dark Lord who the rest of the country are at war with. I still believe in blood purity but I have no interest in following a Dark Lord who cannot defeat a teenager, plus the fact that my girlfriend is a Weasley who are considered Blood Traitors."

"The fiery redhead with the left hook?"

"Yeah."

"Us Malfoy's really know how to pick the strong women." He said more to himself than to Draco "So now you're siding with good guys?"

"Haven't got much choice, the most powerful enemies of the Dark Lord are Potter and Dumbledore, my girlfriend is Potter's best friends sister and there is no way I would survive the war if I wasn't with either."

"Looks like we're both in the same boat; join the do-gooders or die."

A silence started before Draco again asked.

"So how are we going to play this?"

There was another silence before Draco was forced to answer himself.

"Shall we just pretend that we aren't related?"

"Probably be easier." Spike agreed "Just one thing."

"What?"

"NEVER call me Uncle Spike."

* * *

AUTHORS NOTE: Right all, I have a decision to make and I am honestly not sure which decision to take, it's nothing major just something which could be useful. What hair colour should Anne have, now it may sound like an odd question but two different readers have suggested changing her hair colour to distinguish Anne from Buffy. The two choices are either she becomes a brunette like in Cruel Intentions or a red head like in Scooby-Doo. I was initially planning on choosing brunette but I kind of like the idea that if ever Anne and Buffy got together with Faith there would be one of each. So my question is this, should Anne be a red head or a brunette, please respond by review or by choosing in the poll I will be setting up soon in the yahoo group for this story. Thanks


	95. CH95 The Fates

Chapter 95 – The Fates

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date: 8__th __October 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Corridors_

_Time: Evening_

The following day, the Scoobies (minus Dawn) were heading for the Room of Requirements for their first combined DA, MD and Duelling lesson.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" asked Xander "I mean you know if we actually help to teach the miniature tea drinkers how to fight they are bound to need to at some point."

"Yes Xander, I'm sure." Buffy replied "You heard Fleur explain about Harry's life and the Moldywart person during our tour and while he maybe trained, from what we've seen and learnt of them from that conversation all his friends are going to be involved too and I would rather teach them to fight now than play the odds. Besides I need to prove I am better at teaching than Anne."

"You have got to get over this complex you have about her Buff," he continued "I mean she is not exactly a threat to you, your stronger and she obviously likes it here with all her magical friends."

"Just like you were totally fine when you were split in half or when Willow's Vampire double showed up."

"Hey, don't bring me into this." The witch in question complained from behind them.

"Besides," Buffy continued, ignoring the redhead "I'm still the better Slayer, she's been out of the game for weeks."

"I do so hate to interrupt Buffy's insecurities," Spike began "But has anyone realised that we have been down the same corridor three times."

Coming to a stop the group started looking around.

"It definitely looks familiar." Agreed Giles cleaning his glasses.

"Oh nice," exclaimed Xander, throwing up his arms "Way to loose us Buffy."

"Hey, I was just following you." She countered.

"Well I was following you."

"Well whoever the rest of us were following lost us." Interrupted Anya "And I don't like being lost. I once cursed a disloyal husband who caused his wife to loose her arm in a car crash by insisting that he knew the right directions to the mall and drove them straight into oncoming traffic, I made him walk around a labyrinth for eternity trying to find the exit while he was chassed by a minotaur who would tear his limbs off if he was caught before starting all over again."

"Minotaur's and labyrinths, that's not very original." Said Tara.

"You've got to respect the classics." She replied "Besides, this place is scarcely easy to navigate."

"This way." Announced Buffy, walking back down the corridor the way they came.

"Are you sure."

"Sure I'm sure." She replied continuing down the corridor and turning left at the end.

They followed her down some stairs, around several corridors and began back up another flight of stairs before Spike could not take it any more.

"For god sake Buffy, you haven't a bloody clue where you are going so just ask someone. We've passed at least a dozen of the little pimply faced wand wavers already, just admit you're lost."

"We'll find it; it's got to be around here somewhere."

"Actually it's on the other side of the castle?" came a familiar voice from the top of the flight of stairs.

Turning the group spotted Hermione, Dawn, Ginny and several other female students.

"You're much closer to the Gryffindor Common Room."

"Would you be so kind as to lead the way Hermione?" asked Giles.

"Of course, though you may wish to jump over the step immediately in front of Buffy."

"Why?" asked the Slayer in question.

To answer her question Hermione came down the stairs to the step two up from Buffy and pulled a quill from her pocket.

Pointing the quill downwards she let it go and waited.

It took the Scoobies a couple of seconds to realise that they had not heard it hit the stone, in fact there was no sign of it at all.

"What the?"

"Where'd it go?"

Drawing her wand Hermione summoned the quill and it flew back out of the step.

"It's a trick stair, almost every student falls through it at least once. You have to watch out for things like that around here."

"Lovely." Snorted Spike as they moved past the step and joined the group at the top "I thought schools were supposed to teach students, not try to kill them."

"Where's the fun in that?" asked Ginny, she had been having a lot of fun teasing him ever since the incident in the Hospital Wing.

"She's got a point." Agreed Dawn "Imagine what Sunnydale High would be like without killer prom dogs, Vampires and the odd Werewolf running around."

"The school would be positively normal," replied Willow shuddering "It wouldn't be natural."

"I don't think I could cope with a normal Sunnydale High," agreed Buffy "Or UC Sunnydale for thatAAAHHH!!"

She was cut off as she and most of the assembled group gasped and cried out as water balloons rained down on them, followed shortly by an evil giggling.

"He he he, poor little Muggle's, soppy and wet, they'll catch flu and be stuck in bed, he hehe."

"Peeves!!" growled Hermione drawing her wand and pointing it at the poltergeist as his head emerged through the ceiling.

She shot a jet of water at him but he dodged as he did the next three that Ginny and the Patil twins aimed at him.

"He hehe," he laughed as he disappeared through the floor "Can't catch me Miss Bookworm, he hehe."

"I swear one day we'll find a way to teach him a lesson." Growled Ginny as she and the rest of the wand wavers started casting drying charms on themselves and their guests.

"Everyone alright?" asked Hermione while drying off Willow and Tara.

"Just a bit moist." Giles replied while regarding the way that the witches used their wands "How many other everyday household spells do you know?"

"Hermione knows virtually every spell invented." Laughed the Patil in blue "Why?"

"Do all wizards and witches use magic so casually?" he continued, bypassing the question.

"Most do yes." The other twin nodded "Why?"

"I'm just thinking about the differences between Wiccan and Wand magic." He replied

"To be precise," interrupted Willow sadly, saying exactly what Giles hoped she would not realise he had been asking about "He is thinking that when a Wiccan uses magic that casually like I used to they are called addicts and are likely to become dangerous."

The students watched as the Scoobies exchanged looks, none were aware of all the emotions and histories being displayed before them but those who had beard about Willow trying to destroy the world after getting addicted had a fairly good idea.

"Our magic is internal so it's safer," explained Hermione "Yours comes from around you so it can be influenced especially if you live somewhere like a Hellmouth."

"She's right Willow," nodded Tara, pulling closer to her lover to comfort her "It's easier to become addicted when the magic is tainted like that over the Hellmouth, it wants to be used."

This obviously did not sooth Willow as much as they had hoped as she continued to look down all the way to the RoR.

She finally brightened up a bit when they reached the room and the door appeared after Hermione walked back and forth three times over the same spot. She explained that Harry had been very careful when creating the room this time so as to only allow those who wanted to learn to fight against Voldemort and those who wanted to help teach them to fight into the room.

Opening the door they were forced to duck as a fireball passed over their heads.

Entering the room, expecting to have to defend themselves they saw a line of students standing in front of them looking into the room with the sounds of battle coming from the other side of the line.

Pocketing what weapons had been drawn they joining the line of spectators.

Over their heads the group were able to see the combatants, battling each other with swords and sai's were Harry and Fleur, while off to the side in front of the line of students Adam was standing with his staff glowing directing several dummies to attack the pair.

Battle dummies in the Wizarding World are nothing like those in the Muggle World, they are made of wood in the rough shape of a human with movable metal joints. They come in two types, target and combat; target dummies stand still and are for target practice though unlike Muggle dummies they fire back with varying levels of skill, while combat dummies are like facing another wizard, they will dodge and attack like a human would do, again with varying levels of accuracy. Adam was currently commanding five of said combat dummies to attack the pair with either hand-to-hand weapons or wands so as well as each other the pair had to fight off the dummies whenever they approached. What made it harder was the fact that the dummies auto-repair themselves, if you fire a blasting hex at one and blow its head off it will magically reattach and return to the fight after about thirty seconds.

"What the!!" was all any of them could manage as they watched Fleur and Harry completely in sync plunge their blades into two of the dummies before spinning back around to clash against each other to the sound of ringing metal.

"We all got here early," explained Ron easing his way through the crowd towards them, which was difficult as he did not want to take his eyes of the action "As you hadn't shown up the two of them felt like having a little warm up sparring session."

"This is a warm up!!" said Dawn doubtfully.

"It started as one," continued Anne coming up beside them "But when Adam arrived and set the dummies on them and it started to get more interesting, especially when they both started throwing fire at the dummies."

"Hey Buffy," spoke Willow for the first time since the awkward conversation earlier "Why don't you and Anne go and join the fight, show them how Slayers are."

The Slayers looked at each other, neither really liked the other but who were they to turn down a good fight. Exchanging a grin the pair shrugged out of their jackets and handed them to Xander, heading for the wall with the weapons fixed to it, Buffy picking up a pair of small daggers while Anne picked up just the one while she brandished her wand in her other hand.

"On my mark." Smiled Anne.

"Let's show them how to really fight." Nodded Buffy.

"Three, two, one, NOW!!"

The pair launched themselves into the fray, decapitating the dummies that turned towards them before leaping at Harry and Fleur.

The pair obviously saw them coming as they were already bringing their blades to bear upon them.

The four met with a huge crash of steal, Harry's blades blocking Buffy while Fleur did the same for Anne's.

Spinning away from the pair Buffy and Anne begin to circle them...which turned out to be a mistake as it meant that Buffy was out of play as the only person who could not attack at a distance without loosing her weapons.

Fleur and Harry pocket one weapon each and conjure fireballs.

Quick to react, Anne casts a shield, Fleur's fireball impacting harmlessly against it. Buffy on the other hand had to dive sideways before regaining her feet with a tuck and roll as Harry's sailed around the shield, she threw one of her daggers at him in an attempt to distract him and give her enough time to recover.

Harry fired another fireball, this time at the blade, knocking it sideways causing it to spin to a stop, harmlessly impaling itself into the floor, but still giving Buffy enough time to regain her feet and lunge at him.

Behind them Fleur and Anne were engaged in a proper wizards duel, Anne being forced to do a lot more ducking and weaving than casting due to Fleur's greater skill with a wand, though luckily Anne had Slayer agility and managed to get the odd one or two well aimed spells in every four or five sent her way.

The Slayers got their chance though when Harry, who had been wrestling unsuccessfully against Buffy's superior strength while she pinned him down managed to get his feet into a position where he could flip her off him. Scrambling to his feet he moved alongside Fleur while Buffy did the same next to Anne.

"Dodge this one!!" shouted Anne before an Incendio erupted from the end of her wand, the flames surrounding the pair making many in the audience gasp.

Anne and Buffy watched, slightly worried that the flames hadn't stopped and had in fact continued to swirl around their opponents, even though Anne had only fired a short burst of flame at them.

"That's not supposed to happen is it?" Buffy asked.

"No." Anne replied worriedly.

They watched as the fire storm swirled around the pair, before seaming to break and begin swirling inwards, gathering somewhere in the middle of the raging flames.

The entire class watched in astonishment as the fires continued to dissipate, feeding inwards to gather in an intense fireball held in the hand of a completely unharmed Harry, while Fleur stood beside him looking smug.

With a grin Harry launched the ball at the Slayers who, still startled by the fire show and Harry's control over the flames, were slower to react than normal resulting in them throwing themselves out of the way without having time to plan their landings.

The pair hit the ground hard and barely had time to roll over as Harry and Fleur descended on them.

In a rapid movement the pair brought their weapons up just as their opponents reached them resulting in all four having a blade at their necks.

They stayed like that for several seconds, breathing heavily, not moving before the sound of clapping echoed around the room.

The entire population of the room turned to see who was applauding.

The sound was emanating from the hands of Professor Dumbledore who, along with Professor McGonagall was standing at the far end of the room looking intently at the formerly battling quartet.

"Most impressive Harry." He congratulated "I had no idea you control of magic was so advanced."

"Thank you Professor," he replied as the quartet stood and stowed their weapons "But that was not magic, that was Elemental Skill."

The room went quiet for a moment as people either mentally asked 'what's Elemental Skill?' or 'Elemental Skill!! How in Merlin's name does he know that?'

Even the Headmaster was temporarily shocked.

"Where did you learn that Skill Harry?" asked the Headmaster.

"From Adam, though it also helps that Veela are natural Fire Elementals, my skills just go a bit further than Fleur's."

"I thought Elemental Magic in humans was a myth." Stated McGonagall to which Adam, Harry and Fleur shook their heads.

"It's not a myth, just very rare." explained Adam "One in ten thousand may have the gift but very few know how to use their powers. With the help of myself and the Delacour's Harry is now a Master."

"Most impressive." Nodded the Headmaster "I noticed that you also picked up some skills with a blade Harry?"

"Adam again." He replied "He was most helpful in teaching me to fight."

"So I see," replied the Headmaster before turning to Adam after a moments thought "Is there an easy way of telling if someone is an Elemental?"

"I can charm a device to detect if a person is; what did you have in mind?"

"I was contemplating testing those of the student body who wish to find out if they have additional skills which they do know about, and if so who could teach them to hone their skills."

"Fleur, Colette and myself can teach them Fire Elemental Skills," suggested Harry "And Adam could teach them the rest, he has skill in all four of the elements."

"I would be more than willing to teach Elemental Skill." Agreed Adam, casting his staff about the air and using his other hand to focus on whatever he was conjuring, moving his fingers like a pianist at the climax of a piece.

"Excellent." Smiled Dumbledore "How long will it take you to make the device you need?"

There was a flash in front of Adam and a large smoke filled sphere appeared before him, dropping onto his hand.

"It's already finished."

* * *

The next half hour was taken up with students (not just those who had come to the class) flocking into the room to queue up one by one to touch the sphere.

To demonstrate how it worked, Adam asked Fleur to touch the sphere (it only needed a slight tap to reveal an Elemental) which responded by the smoke turning red before returning to its original grey.

"Red indicated fire, green earth, yellow air and blue water, no response means you are not an Elemental."

What followed was almost an hour of absolute boredom as student after student touched the sphere with no response what so ever, until those that had actually been in the room got their chance, they had all had to leave the room so Harry could let anyone in to be tested, as such many of them got pushed to the back, others from around the castle having joined the crowd and got there before them.

Ginny was the first to get a response when the sphere flashed red.

"We have our first Elemental." Smiled Adam as Ginny jumped at the reaction of the sphere, most of the rooms other occupants were equally shocked by the sight, most had been lying down or even nodding off due to lack of any sort of response from the object.

"Congratulations Miss Weasley." Smiled Dumbledore at the rather shocked girl "You have just beaten the odds."

"Looks like Little Red is hotter than we thought." chuckled Spike to himself from his position against the wall, receiving a death glare from the girl in question.

"When they've finished teaching you," grinned Ron "Your Fire Powers could be even more infamous that you're Bat-Bogey Hex."

"I wonder," pondered Adam turning to Ron "You're next Ron, try the sphere."

"O...k." agreed Ron slowly, not liking being put on the spot.

Everyone turned to watch him as he touched the sphere...and nothing happened.

"It was just a thought," added Adam before turning back to Ginny "You may have got it from your father genetically, probably in his 'X' gene which is why you have it and your brother has not as he received the 'Y' gene."

"Either that or its just pure chance," continued Harry, knowing that neither of the Weasley's would have a clue what Adam was talking about "One or the other anyway."

"Come over here with us Ginny," smiled Colette moving to an open area of the room and conjuring a candle "We'll get a quick lesson in while others are busy testing the rest."

"Ok, next student." Called Adam as Harry, Ron, the Headmaster and some of the others who had already been tested gathered around Ginny and Colette.

More time past with no more successful tests, most of the rooms occupants had resorted to watching Ginny make the candle flicker, almost going out several times only to wobble back to life, fifteen minutes later Xander (who had tried and failed the test like all the others and who had been watching the sphere) exclaimed:

"Strike two!!"

Everyone spun around to see Draco's hand on the sphere, it was red again.

"We have another Fire Elemental." Smiled Colette "Come join the class."

Draco groaned, this couldn't be good, as if he wasn't exiled enough as it was, he was now getting thrust even further towards the 'good guys' and therefore becoming even more of a target for the Death Eaters and most of the rest of Slytherin, at least he had Ginny.

* * *

Only three more times during the next hour did the sphere react.

Next was Neville, receiving a refreshing change of colour when he received a green result, Hogwarts first Earth Elemental.

Following him was Dawn, who was the last of the Scoobies to try, returning another fire result (to the worried looks of both of her sisters), joining Ginny and Draco with Fleur, Harry and Colette, each respectively teaching one student to the point where Ginny could now stop the candle burning and was working on the reverse with Draco quiet close behind.

The last to trigger a response was Hermione who, much to the surprise of most of the rooms returned a double result.

The sphere flashed blue for a few seconds before following that up with yellow.

"Two for the price of one." Grinned Xander "Air and water."

"I didn't know you could control more than one element?" Hermione exclaimed.

"Of course," replied Adam "Though it is even rarer, one in a hundred thousand can do so, if the trait is genetic it just requires the offspring to receive the right genes from the father."

"Hermione," asked Harry walking over followed by Ron, Ginny and the rest "Have you had a chance to read through all the books I gave you for your birthday?"

"No, I've read the older version of history of Hogwarts, Durmstrang's history and half of that of Beauxbatons. They're long books you know." She added hastily trying to justify why she hadn't read all of the thousand plus page books in three weeks.

"I take it that means you have not read 'Powerful Magical Beings Through the Ages' or 'The Lost History Of Wizards' then."

"Not yet." She replied, hurrying to her bag to retrieve the first of the two books which she had on her.

"Go to the index and search for Elementals." He instructed as most of the room crowded around her.

"Elementals, elementals," she chanted to herself as she went to the back of the book and began to look down the list "'E', 'Ek', 'Ela', 'Ele', 'Elem' Elementals, here it is. Page five hundred and seventy three."

She flicked back through the book, though given its size and age that wasn't as easy as it sounded.

"Page five hundred and seventy three, got it!!" she smiled satisfied before beginning to read allowed:

"Elementals: The Elementals are a group of beings, both human and humanoid magical beasts that have the ability to control the elements without the need for wand or incantation. The ability to control the elements is divided into four; air, water, earth and fire, with some rare individuals have the even more uncommon ability of controlling more than one of these elements, such events usually occur where two Elementals produce offspring that inherit the abilities of both parents. The ability to control the elements is not only based on family but also on random chance. Elementals have been discovered that have no Elemental ancestry like Muggle-Born Wizards, while others like our Squibs do not inherit the abilities of the parent and either have no Elemental skill at all or have the ability to control a completely different element. The above instances of random Elemental Skill only occur in humans, humanoid beasts like Wood Nymphs, Veela, the Merpeople's, Sirens, Kelpie and others all genetically have the ability to control their element and only when these beasts mate with humans and dilute their blood over many generations do the abilities wane."

She paused for a breath.

"Elementals come in all power levels but by far the most powerful is The Avatar!!" Harry watched Hermione as she read the name out. He had blundered; it only occurred to him a couple of seconds before that she might react a bit too surprised to the use of the title than to be passable.

Unfortunately she did indeed sound very surprised when she heard the name but fortunately for those in The Alliance she recovered very well. Looking up she frowned and spoke, half to herself:

"Where have I heard the name before?"

"Probably in a book." Covered Adam "There are probably more writings about Elementals in the Hogwarts Library somewhere. Go on Hermione."

"Errrr..." she thought as she tried to find her place "The most powerful is The Avatar. The Avatar is an extremely powerful being with mastery of all four elements and is effectively the Elemental Messiah; he is worshiped by Elementals and is regarded as their head of state. If more than one being possesses the ability to control all of said elements only one can be The Avatar, the other will just be an extremely powerful Elemental. There are some forms of Elemental Skills which are almost unique to The Avatar which help to mark him or her out as said being. The Avatar is a recurring being that reappears every few hundred to a thousand years meaning that there are large spans of time when the Elementals are led by the most powerful of each Skill before returning to the command of The Avatar for his or her life time."

As she finished several people turned to look at the Veela.

"Is there an Avatar at the moment?" asked Willow.

"It's been rumoured that The Avatar has returned to the world," replied Fleur "But I am unable to say more than that."

Those in the know, inwardly smiled at the way Fleur answered the question, she didn't say she didn't know more but made it sound like she didn't.

"Is The Avatar likely to follow Voldemort?" asked Dumbledore seriously.

"It depends entirely on the individual Avatar." Explained Colette "But Elemental species are likely to follow The Avatar."

"Will you follow The Avatar if he sides with Voldemort?" asked Giles, coming up beside Dumbledore from where he had been reading over Hermione's shoulder.

"No." Fleur replied certainly "The old loyalties are not as strong as they once were, it has been many hundreds of years since the world last saw The Avatar and many Elemental species have died out since, the Sirens are gone, the Wood Nymphs are too few to be of any use, the Kelpie have become too wild which leaved only the Veela and the Merpeople's who hate each other bitterly, it will be difficult for The Avatar to gain leadership of both species."

"What about human Elementals?" asked Hermione.

"I know of no remaining humans other than those in this room that can wield the powers of the elements," replied Colette "The civilisation disappeared over a thousand years ago."

"What happened to it?" asked Ginny.

Colette and Fleur were silent for a moment before looking up taking on rather annoyed and angry looks.

"Let us just say that if that book was written a few hundred years later than it was then it would not have given so nice a view of Elementals."

"What do you mean?" asked Draco.

"Over two thousand five hundred years ago, before Merlin or the Hogwarts Founders were even born, one particularly powerful Avatar named Atlas," the group noted how both of the Veela paused slightly in reverence of the name "Decided that instead of moving from city to city to avoid one group of Elementals seeming more favoured than another, that she would build her own city to rule from."

"Where was this city?" asked McGonagall.

"On the water." Colette replied "Built from earth and stone and kept afloat by huge sealed chambers of compressed air throughout the city."

"It was built by all the Elemental groups, the Water Elementals carved the earth and stone into shape, the Earth and Fire Elementals moved and sealed the stone and earth together and the Air Elementals created the massive bubbles of densely compressed air which the others sealed in chambers creating a vast city afloat on the waters of the world. A city named for its creator; 'The Island of Atlas'."

"Dear lord." Giles exclaimed.

"What?" questioned Buffy "What's so special about that name?"

"In Greek," he replied "'The Island of Atlas' translates as Atlantis."

"Atlantis!!" Hermione explained at the same time as several other Muggle-Born's did "Not the lost city of Atlantis."

"The same." Nodded Fleur "The other magic users of the world were jealous of how powerful the Elementals were by being able to create a floating island that could move as commanded, this led to fear among the Wizarding community despite the fact that the Elementals were nothing but peaceful. The Wizards gathered together a massive army of magic users while convincing those Muggle's that would listen to them that we were dangerous, unfortunately some of those that listened were the powerful Persian Empire under Xerxes I, you may have heard of him."

"The Battle of Thermopylae against the Greek City States." Nodded Giles.

"Yes, they convinced him that they needed to attack Atlantis before they were attacked themselves, so he created a vast army of over one hundred thousand men under the deception of using it to attack Athens which he was intending to do anyway."

Fleur stopped and Colette took over.

"Atlas herself was Athenian so she immediately steered 'The Island of Atlas' towards the Mediterranean Sea to help her birth city which would be obliterated by any seriously sized Persian force. As they neared Athens they were assaulted by a vast fleet of ships, over a hundred strong filled with the most powerful Wizards and Persians."

"The wizards used their magic to hide the ships until they were close and accelerated the ships above the top speed of the city when they got near resulting in the city being taken almost completely unawares. The combined forces of thousands of Wizards and Persians ransacked the city."

"During the attack six extremely powerful wizards managed to corner Atlas after she had taken down several battalions of Persian that engaged her, they started a running fire fight which culminated at the very peak of the city, the wizards overpowering her, making her fall to her death."

"With the Elementals defeated the Wizards and Persians celebrated their victory which turned out to be their undoing. Without Elementals to control the city it was swept out into the Mediterranean, with all the ships in tow. As they celebrated in one of the halls a storm began to blow up and without Elementals to repel all the water that was crashing down on the city it began to flood, that added to the damage to the buoyancy system that the city had sustained during the attack, resulting in the city being torn apart, thousands drowned, including the wizards who at that time had not discovered the ability to Apparate."

"As great as the victory sounded, to the Wizards it was nothing short of a disaster, the vast majority of the combined army could not fit on the ships and so was left encase reinforcements were needed. The few Persians that escaped on the ships reported to Xerxes that having seen the power of the Wizards, that they were just as dangerous as the Elementals."

"So Xerxes ordered his Persians to kill all the Wizards, over ten thousand, all the best and brightest being wiped out in a matter of days all because of their own fear, resulting in a dark age for wizardry while they tried to recover. It is a period which wizards have tried very hard to forget."

"And succeeded," nodded Dumbledore "As none of us have ever heard of this Elemental city. Go on Professors."

"Both the Wizards and Elementals were persecuted throughout Europe, Asia and Africa, anywhere within trade reach of Persia, the message was spread of how dangerous both peoples were and how the Persians had selflessly defeated both to protect the world from their evil at great cost to themselves, resulting in the Wizarding population as a whole going into hiding, leaving only a few who refused to hide their talents and the Elementals cities being wiped out with only a few in distant parts of the world surviving, we know of none that still exist."

"What happened to the rest of the army?" asked Xander.

"Xerxes brought it back to Persia, strengthened its numbers and invaded Greece as had been his original plan before the Wizards convinced him to attack the Elemental's first, this resulted in the Battle of Thermopylae and the legend of the Greek armies stand and the three hundred Spartans that led it." Concluded Fleur.

There were several moments of silence as the tail ended.

"Quite the legend." Said Dumbledore breaking the silence "Are there any others still to be tested?"

"No," Adam replied "All that wanted to including yourself have been tested, the only human Elementals here are Harry, Hermione, Ginny, Draco, Dawn and Neville, we will train the later five during these lessons."

Some noticed how deep in thought Adam appeared as he spoke.

"Very well," nodded the Headmaster turning to the mass of students "As this has taken many hours I suggest we call it a day for now and we will see you all next week for a more active lesson."

The students and many of the Professors and Scoobies filtered out of the room until only Adam, Dumbledore, McGonagall and Giles were left, the latter two remaining to see what was about to be discussed by the former pair.

"You appear deep in thought Adam." Dumbledore pointed out, conjuring chairs for them to sit on.

"I'm feeling slightly apprehensive." He replied "Six Elementals, all within a year of age of each other, out of less than one thousand people...That is more than just chance."

"What do you suspect?" asked Giles.

"I believe we have a Fate Convergence on our hands." He replied slowly, still deep in thought.

"A Fate Convergence?" asked McGonagall "I am not familiar with the term."

"It's as it sounds," he replied "The Fates have arranged it so that this group, the only six Elementals at Hogwarts, covering all four elements, some of whom already posses more than your average magical strength, a group that includes our resident peoples hero, two of his best friends including an example of exactly what our enemy hates, a solid supporter who would follow him anywhere, his former rival, the girl who binds said rival to the group and a mystical one of a kind girl who was formerly a ball of green energy...That is far too planned a group to be an accident. Then there is the double occurrence of what I call the 'The Rule Of Three Plus Two'."

"Three Plus Two?" asked Giles.

"Yes, it's something that usually happens around Fate Convergences. 'The Rule Of Three' refers to the champion and the two people closest to him. In this case Harry, the reluctant champion who is evils worst enemy and who has a grudge against him, Ron, the devoted, loyal, slightly less intelligent friend and Hermione the highly intelligent friend. This is also true of Buffy, Xander and Willow."

"What was the 'Plus Two' bit about?" continued Giles.

"The Plus Two' refers to the optional additions of a love interest and an experienced teacher, in Harry's case that would be first Cho before he moved onto Fleur and for the teacher the Headmaster. Buffy had Angel, Riley, Spike etcetera for the love interest and Giles for the teacher. It's almost always three that The Fates throw together, almost always three."

"I see your point." Nodded Dumbledore "Going back to your point about the group of Elementals amongst the student body, how exactly do 'The Fates' arrange such an occurrence, if as you said some Elemental Skill is genetic, they would have to plan for events that had not yet occurred."

"Is Professor Trelawney not a seer?" Adam asked "She can, although she does not know it, see the future. The Fates are a group of three beings who live outside of time as you know it; their sole purpose is to make sure that things go as planned and to maintain the equation of existence."

"I am afraid I do not follow." Said Professor McGonagall.

"I believe he is referring to the balance," began Giles "Like that between light and dark, if there are Demons in this world their needs to be a Slayer to oppose them."

"Precisely," nodded Adam "Though in this case it is the champion groups of light and dark that are being balanced. In any monumental battle like that which is to come they need to give the core group of both factions, those that affect the decisions of others, a roughly equal chance to sway the war, so if Harry has the ability to control fire..."

"So will Voldemort." Finished Dumbledore.

"But who gave who the ability to control fire," asked Giles "To whom did it originally belong?"

"If I had to guess," answered Adam "I would say Fleur was the source, being Veela she has a genetic control over fire, being mated to her meant that Harry, if he could control it he could also use it and from there is probably past to Voldemort down the link that connects them, though that I think would have happened even without The Fates, but the others abilities were probably due to an introduction for the potential of the ability at some point in each of the other fives ancestry."

"How..." Began McGonagall "How far would The Fates go to ensure that things go as planned?"

"They would not kill someone if that is what you are asking. They would however make sure someone would turn their head half a second slower so as to miss seeing one woman so as to see another they would then marry, they may make a warrior dodge a killing arrow shot at him so that he could live for one more battle to die protecting someone who had to survive it, but they will never interfere with free will, if a person is aware enough of themselves then they can ignore The Fates."

"So what does this mean for us?" asked McGonagall.

"It means," replied Dumbledore "That this is going to get much more interesting before it ends."


	96. CH96 More For The Team

Chapter 96 - More For The Team

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date: 8__th __October 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time: Early Afternoon_

Later that day after using the Time Turner to take the clock back six hours, the Chateau had been turned into a hub of activity. It was another recruiting session, but this time they were trying to recruit many more individuals than they ever had before.

Three different rooms at the Chateau had been needed to hold them all. The first was full of Durmstrang Alumni and others from Germany, Bulgaria and the surrounding countries whose male children attended Durmstrang, with them were Viktor and Dimitri.

In the next were a similar group of mostly Beauxbatons Alumni from France and Belgium accompanied by Delphine, Fleur and Colette.

And lastly the final room was full to the brim with Hogwarts Alumni including all the Post-DA members, several Gryffindor's and the odd Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, along with a reasonably large group of Aurors and the rest of the younger generation of Weasley's to whom Harry, Hermione, Tonks, Bill and Ollivander were conversing.

The doors to all the rooms had been closed for over two hours before Krum and Dimitri emerged from their now empty room holding a copy of the contract with over a dozen extra signatures on it.

"That was not fun." Stated Viktor, closing the door behind him before leaning heavily against it.

"Whose idea was it to invite the Tertiary Minister of Germany?" sighed Dimitri.

"Yours!" Came the annoyed reply "He just had to keep asking questions wouldn't he, he spent over half an hour just examining the contract. Bloody politicians."

"Thank you." Dimitri replied with a raised eyebrow.

"You're welcome."

It was another fifteen minutes before the Veela left their room and headed down to the Living Room to meet the men.

"How'd it go?" asked Colette as she slumped into a seat.

"Twelve signed, three had to be obliviated, we got the Tertiary Minister though." replied Dimitri "Yours?"

"Fourteen and two, any sign of the others yet?"

"No," Viktor replied "They do have the hardest job, convincing all those Aurors to join. Do you think they need reinforcements?"

"I shouldn't think so, most of the Aurors probably want to fight Voldemort but convincing them to back someone they have never met and have only seen in the papers is not going to be easy."

It took another two hours before Harry, Hermione, Tonks, Bill and Ollivander finally staggered in.

"Someone wake me in ten years," sighed Harry as he dropped down beside Fleur "It's going to take me that long to recover."

"What was the result?" Delphine inquired.

"All signed," replied Hermione with a smile, Harry had specifically thought it would be a good idea to bring her to the recruitment drive because of her wonderful knack of making logical arguments for things.

"The Alumni easily agreed to follow," elaborated Ollivander, moving over to a decanter on the other side of the room, pouring himself a large sherry and downing it quickly before continuing "But the Aurors were a lot more hesitant, Mr Potter had to duel three of them at the same time to convince them. It was most impressive."

"It was most knackering." Corrected the man in question "They were NOT rookies."

"Harry, don't swear."

"Knackering is hardly swearing Err-my-nee." Questioned Viktor, he was now very good at speaking French and English but he still could not pronounce her name correctly.

"Force of habit." She replied, seating herself next to Tonks and Colette on the sofa, while Harry rather more slowly shifted forward on the sofa, allowing his mate to massage his shoulders while he leaned heavily on his knees.

"Only two groups left then." Sighed Tonks.

"Yes," agreed Harry, not raising his head "The most important two."

"Technically its one group and one person." Corrected Delphine "But regardless I agree. Another operative in the Order and a group allied with us would be most useful."

"Just remember the latter will not be joining The Alliance," reminded Harry "We are merely stating our case and asking for their assistance if it's needed in return for our own."

"I suppose we should get to it then." Sighed Harry, standing up and stretching. Reaching into his pocket he retrieved a Pepper-Up Potion and downed it, instantly feeling better as the steam poured from his ears "God that's better."

Turning to Tonks, Fleur and Hermione he made an 'after you' gesture towards the doorway before following them out.

* * *

As hard as she tried, Buffy could not properly prepare herself for the rough landing.

As she and the rest of the group hit the ground there was a several grunts and groans.

"Nice touchdown." smiled Tonks as she extended her hand to help Buffy up "Even better than my worst if you know what I mean."

"It's probably better not to ask." Grunted Giles as he, Anne and the rest of the Scoobies began to disentangle themselves.

"I've think I've sprained something." Gasped Dawn, grasping Hermione's extended hand and pulling herself up.

"Yeah, that would be me." Xander groaned from the position under where Dawn had been, flattened between her and the carpet.

"Welcome to the Chateau Delacour." Greeted Fleur as she Tonks and Hermione walked in "How are you all feeling after the trip?"

"Peachy." Spike replied drolly, straightening himself out.

"If you'll take a seat, we'll get started." Smiled Fleur as they moved to sit at the round table.

* * *

In another room of the Chateau, Remus Lupin had a much more pleasant landing.

"Hello Remus." greeted Harry from a seat by the rooms fire "Drink?"

* * *

"So you are members of this 'Alliance'?" asked Xander.

"Harry, Fleur and Tonks helped set it up along with a few others." Confirmed Hermione "I joined later."

"Who's in charge of The Alliance?" asked Tara.

In response Hermione withdrew a newspaper and pushed it towards her, it was the article about the attack on her house; Tonks withdrew a couple more copies and pushed them towards the others.

They waited for a couple of minutes while they read the article; Giles was the first to finish.

"This masked being leads you?"

"Yes." Nodded Hermione "He is called The Avatar."

Several of their heads snapped up.

"Would that be the one we heard about earlier?" asked Willow "The one with all the fire, air, water and the earth control."

"That's the one." Nodded Tonks.

"I thought you said you didn't know any more about him." Accused Dawn

"No," corrected Fleur "I said I was unable to say anymore, which I wasn't."

"There are magical protection around The Alliance secrets," explained Tonks "There was a meeting this afternoon in which we were given permissions to tell you."

"Why are you telling us?" asked Anne, though she was pretty sure she already knew the answer.

"We are hoping that you will agree to ally with us so when everything kicks off we won't have to worry about things like whether to trust each other or not," replied Tonks "That way we can get on with the pummelling the bad guys."

"I'm all for the pummelling." Nodded Buffy.

"We thought you would be," Fleur replied "But as we know you have your own battles to fight we aren't going to ask you to join. We are hoping for more of a 'you help us, we help you' arrangement."

"You mean an alliance with The Alliance." Continued Willow.

"Exactly." Nodded Hermione.

"What sort of force does The Alliance consist off?" asked Giles.

"More than fifty humans (not including our non-Alliance friends at Hogwarts), around a hundred centaurs, about two hundred Veela, just short of a thousand House Elves, nearly four thousand Goblins and Dwarves, about ten thousand Acromantulas ranging in size from less than a centimetre to over five meters in size and one rapidly growing Wyvern."

None of the Scoobies spoke or said anything for almost thirty seconds.

"You have," began Anne "Over fifteen thousand troops...in your army?"

"About that yes." Nodded Tonks.

"From what I've read that's over five times the Wizarding population of Britain." Stated Willow.

"Roughly." Agreed Hermione.

"What on Earth do you need us for?" asked Buffy.

"You can never have too many allies," smiled Fleur "Dumbledore has his own force which is bigger than yours but still well under a hundred people in strength. He will maintain contact with you when you go back to America as he knows how strong you are and what good allies you would be. We have people working for us within his force and we thought it a good idea to enlighten you to our aims and get you on our side as well as offering you aid if you need it."

* * *

"Are you serious Harry?" asked a shocked Remus "You're actually siding against Dumbledore?"

"I didn't say I was going against him, I merely said that I was not with him. The Alliance has similar aims but more effective ways of achieving them, as was proved by the way The Avatar was able to fend off the attack on Hermione's house as well as protecting the train when it was ambushed."

"Who else is in this 'Alliance'?"

"Our leader The Avatar, yes that is the same Avatar we were talking about earlier, all of the DA both Alumni and current members, minus the person who betrayed us last year, the younger generation of Weasley's, Tonks, Fleur, Fleur's parents, Colette, Viktor Krum, several more Ex-Hogwarts students and about three dozen people that Tonks, Fleur and Viktor were able to bring in and that's just our human allies which are the tip of the iceberg."

"And you want me to leave Dumbledore and join you?"

The look on Remus face definitely made Harry think that Remus could not take much more.

"Who said leave Dumbledore, we already have four members inside the Order; Bill, the twins and Tonks, the more people we have there, the easier it is to keep up to date as to what Dumbledore is up to."

* * *

"We all know a war is coming," stated Fleur "And I seriously doubt with both Adam and his brother involved that it will be a small one. It's going to spread beyond Britain and as Anne once explained to us; the 'big bads' tend to go the Hellmouth to party."

"True." Dawn nodded.

"With us as allies you would have some serious back up if it all started going down in Sunnydale." Tonks pointed out.

"Oh for peat sake," exclaimed Spike, unable to take anymore "The answers going to be yes, this lot have just never been asked before."

"As much as I hate to agree with Spike," Continued Giles "I concur."

"Me too," nodded Dawn "About The Alliance thing, not the agreeing with Spike thing."

"It's agreed then." Sighed Buffy.

"Allies is it." Nodded Anne.

* * *

"Ok, ok. I'll join." Submitted Remus, he had managed to voice nearly as many objections to the whole idea as some of the Aurors had, not to mention the fact that they did not know The Avatar's true intentions (which of course they did) "With the twins, Tonks and you all up near the top of this thing, someone needs to be there to get you lot out of trouble."

* * *

Twenty minutes later Harry and the girls had rejoined the others downstairs.

"That was almost harder than the Aurors." groaned Harry "How did the others react?"

"They were more than a little surprised by our numbers but they agreed," explained Hermione "We gave them each those special silver rings with the onyx background and pearl insignia that Adam made and explained how they worked."

"Good." Harry nodded "We..."

He was cut off before he could continue when an owl flew in through the window and dropped a letter in his lap.

"Oh this can't be good." Groaned Tonks as she and the others leaved forward.

Opening the envelope Harry withdrew the small note inside, reading them to himself he sighed.

"It looks like I'm not finished for the day." He groaned reluctantly.

"What is it?" asked Delphine.

"Dumbledore sent Kingsley and Moody to the Veela and Goblins as emissaries, wanting them to side with him. They refused obviously but both Kingsley and Moody passed on warnings about the 'masked stranger' and The Avatar's return and how they might try to recruit them."

"What are you going to do?" asked Hermione.

"I'm going to pay the Headmaster a visit."

* * *

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date: 8__th __October 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Headmasters Office_

_Time: Late Evening_

Later that evening Dumbledore was sitting quietly behind his desk, after the revelation from his Veela staff that another powerful being with unknown allegiances was out there he had wasted no time in sending out envoys to the Veela, Goblins, Valkyrie and he himself has spoken to the Merpeople.

Unfortunately all the replies he got were bad. The Veela and the Goblins had refused to join them or even swear not to follow The Avatar, the Merpeople had shown indifference to the whole thing and the Valkyrie had not returned to their Volcano after it was attacked.

Closing his eyes for but a moment he was startled out of his thoughts by a large use of magic on the other side of the room.

Instantly standing he fired at the cloaked figure that he saw there who sidestepped his spell but made no move to retaliate.

"Forgive the intrusion," said the figure calmly "But I wish for no one to know that I am here."

"Name yourself and I may grant that forgiveness." The Headmaster stated, bringing his power up into his voice, making it sound all the more commanding.

The figure had had his head lowered and now slowly raised it to reveal a mask covered face.

"You." Dumbledore stated surprised, half lowering his wand.

"Yes, me." The stranger replied.

"What is your business here?"

"I have three purposes," the figure stated "The first is to name myself."

"And what is your name?"

"I am known as The Avatar."

Dumbledore's eye brows rose slightly.

"You're The Avatar?"

"I am." He nodded "I am also he who saved the Grangers and a train load of Hogwarts residence, so that should give you some clue as to my leanings in this conflict."

"I take it then that you are opposed to Voldemort."

"Most definitely, almost all of those who fight with me would be prosecuted by him if he came to power."

"What is your objective in this conflict?" asked the Headmaster, feeling more secure around this relatively unknown being but not enough to pocket his wand.

"To defeat Voldemort and those that follow him using almost whatever force is required."

The last comment was the first thing since Dumbledore had lowered his wand that set him on edge, phrases like 'whatever force is necessary' were bad news, even with an 'almost' attached to it.

"Force needs to be regulated." He stated.

"Yes it does," nodded The Avatar "But what I know of your efforts, regulated means barely anything. My methods are much more affective."

"I disagree," countered Dumbledore "I have spent years making plans, building friendships and adding to our numbers."

"And within three months I have made two successful defences of friendly targets, have become this nation's hero, have become a beacon for hope against the darkness and I am internationally recognised." The Avatar paused for breath "Even the young Harry Potter has been more effective than you have, just by doing what is right... But I am not here to argue our respective methods, we are both on the same side and that brings me neatly to my second point."

"Which is?"

"You contacting the Veela and telling them that they should beware of The Avatar and the unidentified being in the mask. While I agree that caution was called for, warning them away was not necessary when all the masked stranger had done was to protect innocents and as far as you were aware The Avatar could have been firmly on your side. Lastly I want to state now that the Veela already follow me and have done for some time, your Veela Professor's did not lie to you about me, they were simply unable to answer and they will be unable to spy on me for you for the same reason. They are no threat to you so let them be, I shall not be pleased if you do anything to them because of it."

"I do not know what you think you know of me," returned Dumbledore after a moments pause "But I am not in the habit of threatening or biasing against people simple because they are either unable or unwilling to cooperate with me."

"Really, is that why you tried to fire Mr Potter when his deception was uncovered? Either way it is irrelevant as I have said what I came to say and now I will take my leave."

"Wait!!" called Dumbledore, but it was irrelevant as the being in front of him rapidly transformed into the dragon creature he had seen on the train, launched itself into the air and smashed its way out through one of the larger windows on the upper level.

By the time that the Headmaster reached the window it was virtually repaired and there was no sign of The Avatar.

* * *

AUTHORS NOTE 1: Sorry it took so long everyone, I have been on holiday for two weeks and it's been extremely hectic around that.

AUTHORS NOTE 2: Also guys, I know some spelling/grammar isn't good especially in the earlier chapters but my betas and I cannot find everything, mistakes happen


	97. CH97 Gryffindors Cheerleaders

Chapter 97 – Gryffindor's Cheerleaders 

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date: 13__th __October 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Quidditch Pitch_

_Time: Early Afternoon_

"Good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to this year's first Quidditch Match!! My name is NOT Lee Jordan, I am in fact Terry Boot and I will be your commentator during this, the first match of the year between Slytherin and Gryffindor!!"

It was a bright, sunny and quite breezy afternoon and therefore a bad day for Quidditch. Any Quidditch player knows that the best conditions are a light covering of clouds and no wind, sun was always bad as it meant that there was always one direction that you could barely see in, which today, as they were starting just after lunch was almost directly up. The day was not going to be easy for the teams.

"On my left emerging from the changing rooms on my left is the Slytherin team!!"

Cheers erupted from the green and silver sections of the stands.

"Captain of the team this year is Montague and his fellow Chasers Nott and the sultry Blaise Zabini, the only female Slytherin Quidditch Player for thirty years, following them are Beaters Crabbe and Goyle, heaven knows how they got on the team,"

"Boot!!" McGonagall's voice sounded around the stadium.

"Keeper Alphard Mulciber," he continued, not stopping his introductions while the crowd laughed "The youngest member of the team and lastly bringing up the rear Seeker Draco Malfoy!!"

* * *

"Explain to me again how this game works?"

"For god sake Buffy," sighed Giles cleaning his glasses "It's been explained three times."

"Once during that practice that you watched." Added Xander.

"Yeah," she shrugged "But there were all those hunky young men flying about at the time."

"They did look very hot in those uniforms." Agreed Dawn.

"Probably look better out of them." Anya continued.

"Either that or covered in warts and boils," deadpanned Spike from the shaded area at the back of their box before glancing at the demon in the front row "Or rabbit tattoos."

"Hey!!" exclaimed Anya, throwing one of her sweets at him "Don't say things like that." before pausing for a moment and saying "Can I have that one back." much to the amusement of the others.

The Scoobies were sharing their box with Fleur, Colette, Adam and Dumbledore who had left the main teachers box were McGonagall, their new commentator and the rest of the Professor's attending resided in favour of the Scoobies box saying that they were more amusing to be around.

Most of the group were relatively normal for Quidditch spectators; Dumbledore, Adam, Giles, Spike and the Veela were sitting watching events unfold, none bearing either teams insignia or colours in favour of supporting both and not showing favouritism.

The rest of the box however was another matter; Xander was the next most normal, sitting in one corner of the box, the main distinguishing feature being the red and gold top hat he had traded with one of the students (who collected old and foreign money and was glad to get his hands on some American Muggle currency), most of the time the hat was just a completely mad thing to wear except for when completely at random it roared like a lion, scaring the life out of many of those nearby.

Anya was dressed from head to foot in red and gold; jeans, shirt, coat, gloves, hat and shoes; she had got some students to charm them in exchange for showing them her demon face. But if that wasn't bad enough in front of her stood a meter tall bag of Wizarding sweats courtesy of the Weasley twins (normal Wizard sweets not their trick ones) for the entire Scooby gang except only Anya seemed brave enough to take a second after trying their first every flavour bean, as such most were waiting for the bag to empty a bit so they could try the next level; chocolate frogs.

The rest of the Scoobies comprising off Buffy, Anne, Willow, Tara and Dawn were all carrying pompoms and the three Summers women had gone so far as to wear Gryffindor coloured Cheerleading outfits much to the amusement and exasperation of the others.

"AND ON MY RIGHT," continued the commentary "WE HAVE THE HOLDERS OF THE QUIDDITCH CUP, THE GRYFFINDOR TEAM!!"

"Does he have to shout so loud!!" asked Willow covering her ears.

"There are localised sound dampening charms around the teacher's box," explained Dumbledore drawing his wand and casting a spell so that the commentary got quieter "I will have to get them added to the boxes on either side; Mr Boot is a bit louder than his predecessor."

"Leading them out the new Captain and Keeper of Gryffindor Team; Ron Weasley, following are Chasers Demelza Robins, Andrew Kirke and Ginny Weasley last years temporary Seeker, behind them are the new Beaters Jimmy Peakes and Ritchie Coote and last but certainly by no means least, the oldest serving member of the team, Gryffindor's Seeker, Harry Potter!!"

All the Cheer Squad stood and applauded with the rest of the non-green and silver three quarters of the stands as the red team flew past them in a 'V' formation, down in the student boxes several groups could be seen dressed as cheerleaders, having seen the Summers girls do it they found that they liked the idea, and the boys near them were not exactly complaining either.

"I still think I need another explanation." Sighed Buffy.

"It's too late," replied Xander "They are going to be starting in less than a minute."

"This is almost a rookie match between these two teams!!" the commentary continued "Other than Potter no member of the Gryffindor team has been in the position they are in now for more than a year and several team members Robins, Peakes, Coote and Ginny Weasley are all brand new to their positions, but with Ron Weasley and Potter on their side it should make for an interesting first outing!! Slytherin are similarly green with only Malfoy and Montague being on the team for any length of time!!"

He paused for breath.

"The teams brooms are similarly well balanced all the Slytherin team have the impressive Nimbus 2001's that were a gift to the team from their Seekers father, whereas the Gryffindor team for the most part have older brooms but amongst them are three that stand out from the crowd!! Ron Weasley has recently purchased a Nimbus 2000, not as fast as the successor that the opposing team are using but still a very good broom, Ginny Weasley is using Harry Potter's Firebolt, far faster than either of the Nimbus models and the current choice of mount for many professional teams and lastly but most certainly not least Harry Potter is riding, and I have checked this, it is not a wind up, is riding a brand new Dragon Broom."

"Wow!!" exclaimed Xander "That must have cost him a bit."

"I take it that broom is supposed to be good then?" asked Giles.

"It's the newest broom on the market," explained Dumbledore "Most of the Professional teams don't even use them yet."

"It was a gift from my parents." Explained Fleur.

"Both teams have been training hard and now its time to see how they fare!! Can Gryffindor hold onto the cup for another year or is Slytherin going to knock them out in their first game!! The Captains are shaking hands, and almost breaking them knowing Montague!!"

"Boot!!"

"The Bludgers and the Golden Snitch are away!! Madam Hooch prepares to throw the Quaffle, and the game begins!!"

* * *

As the players threw themselves into the air Harry flew straight passed the pack, his newly revealed Dragon rocketing up to the level of the top boxes with Draco's slower Nimbus 2001 right behind, looking down Harry could already see Ginny (Quaffle in hand) race across the pitch on his Firebolt, outstripping and outmanoeuvring every other player, there was no point in just leaving his old broom in his room when it was the second fastest broom on the pitch, less than ten seconds into the game Ginny launched the Quaffle straight past the Slytherin Keeper.

"Ten points to Gryffindor and an excellent start for Ginny Weasley!!"

"Hey, Potter." Called Draco.

"Yes Malfoy." He replied, not stopping his eyes wandering over the pitch.

"Good luck."

Harry was so shocked by the statement that he stopped dead in the air and stared at his opponent, he wasn't joking, he had actually meant that.

"You too Mal..."

He was cut off as a badly aimed Bludger hurtled by him to gasps from the crowd.

"Oh!! A near miss for Potter, just as well Crabbe can't aim!!"

Recommencing his scans of the pitch Harry looked over at his opponent.

"It that was meant to be a distraction Malfoy then it was a good one."

"It wasn't, just good timing...or bad timing depending on your point of view, besides do you really think Ginny would let me get away with it if it was." Draco laughed "They can't aim anyway and by the look of it yours aren't much better."

"Unfortunately true." Harry nodded "But forgetting girlfriends and the fact that you've switched sides..."

"During the game..." Draco continued.

"We are still..."

"Worst enemies." Draco finished

"Hell yes." Harry grinned back before shooting of across the pitch, Draco right on his tail.

"Nott has the Quaffle!! Montague, Nott, Montague. Come on guys this isn't a game of catch!! HA!! That will teach them, Ginny Weasley flew straight between the pair and caught the Quaffle out of the air!!"

Glancing down at the game Harry could see Ginny flying down the pitch before throwing the Quaffle to Demelza as Montague and Nott closed in on either side of her, he saw her grin as both went to ram her small form as she dived out of the way sending them crashing into each other followed by a rather rough landing.

"Ooo!! That ones going to hurt!! Well done Gin...HEY Crabbe!! What do you think you are doing, that was a blatant foul!!"

Locating the fat Slytherin, Harry could see a smug look on his face while he rested his Beaters bat on his shoulder; Demelza was lying on the ground cradling her left arm.

Unfortunately Madam Hooch did not see the foul itself so the game continued with Gryffindor one Chaser down, and even more unfortunately Montague and Nott's little bump did not knock them out of the game.

Letting out a growl Harry turned towards the other Seeker.

"Excuse me for a moment Draco; I need to get some revenge on that lump of lard down there."

"Be my quest." He replied smiling "More time that you are not looking for the Snitch is more time for me to catch it."

Working out his move, Harry flew down alongside one of their new Beater's.

* * *

"What's he up to?" asked Willow, leaning over the front of the box to see what Harry was doing.

He flew over to one Gryffindor Beater then over to the other before pulling back and hovering slap bang in the middle of the pitch.

"Is he trying to get knocked out?" asked Xander.

"Don't underestimate my Arry." Smiled Fleur, seeing exactly what Harry was planning in his mind "I think he will surprise you."

"What is Potter up to!!" came the commentary "That's really not a good place to search for the Snitch!! He'll get...There you are Potter , told you you'd be target...Hang on, that Bludger came from one of his own Beaters!! What on earth is Peakes doing!!"

* * *

Harry grinned as his scheme started exactly as planned, the Bludger was on his tail and as long as he was careful it would continue to follow him.

What most people did not realise about Bludgers is that if they're after you and you stay relatively in front of them then they will continue to follow you until another target gets in the way, if nothing is in their sights they will head for the nearest player.

He took a long relatively low speed (for his broom) climb passed Draco's flight level and continued up to several times the height of the stadium and as far horizontally as he could without leaving them. Then is a nifty little move did the broom equivalent of a handbrake turn and levelling off.

He waited for the Bludger to get close, aiming for his stomach, when it was about five meters from him he leapt up and off his broom allowing the ball to pass between him and his mount.

Dropping back down onto it he turned his head as the Bludgers magic realised it no longer had a target ahead of it before locking back onto him as the nearest player.

Giving a grin he took off again, hurtling back towards the ground heading straight down before altering his course as he saw a further opportunity to strike back at the other team. Aiming for the Slytherin end of the pitch, he and the Bludger passed straight in front of the Slytherin Keeper making him almost fall of his broom in shock just as Gryffindor's other Chaser Andrew Kirke took aim and scored.

"Nice move Potter!! That levels the score at fifty points each!!"

But Harry wasn't finished yet.

* * *

Crabbe grinned inanely.

Stupid Potter was flying straight at him and Goyle was passing a Bludger towards him.

He could whack the Bludger straight at him and hit him, then the one behind would hit him and knock him out of the game.

* * *

Harry almost rolled his eyes at Crabbe's stupidity.

Anyone with half a brain cell would have been able to work out that; A. The fastest broom on the field which also happened to be one of the fastest if not the fastest in the world would easily be able to outpace a Hogwarts Bludger that was following it. B. That he was deliberately letting it follow him and C. That he wasn't so stupid as to not dodge when he was flying directly at some one.

With about ten meters to target both of Gryffindor's Beaters flew straight in front of the Slytherin completely throwing his concentration.

At the last second before collision with less than a meter to go Harry pulled back hard on his broom, shooting straight up and into a loop. Less than half a second later he heard a yell of fear followed by both Bludgers colliding with Crabbe at full speed making a loud crunching noise.

As he came back down to complete his loop Harry gave a satisfied smile at the groaning form of Crabbe with Madam Hooch and the Slytherin Captain arguing over him.

"Mr Montague, that was not a foul, none of Gryffindor's players touched Mr Crabbe, one of the two Bludgers was hit at Mr Potter by his own team mate and the other by Mr Crabbe's fellow Beater and other than Mr Potter getting rather close that move could not even validate a warning."

Dipping slightly lower at the bottom of his loop he passed close by and shrugged.

"Woops."

Receiving a death glare from Montague in the process.

* * *

"And I thought the hit on that girl looked painful." Winced Buffy.

"He's got to have several cracked ribs after that." Agreed Anne.

"It was a clever move too." Nodded Xander "It doesn't even count as a foul, unlike that lumps attack on that young girl."

"Very rarely do any teams other than Slytherin make fouls during matches." Added Dumbledore, a very slight hint of amusement in his voice "That move was completely legal."

"Hey," interrupted Dawn "It looks like Harry spotted something."

* * *

As he completed his loop Harry aimed back up towards Draco so as to continue looking for the Snitch.

But just as he started to return to height he spotted a glint of gold behind Draco.

It was nigh on impossible to see from where he was as the sun was almost directly overhead.

Resisting the urge to launch himself at it he forced himself to continue his fast accent without going to full speed, if he started after it now then Draco would notice, look around and get to it first, he had to be level with him before starting after the Snitch.

Continuing up he still rather quickly but not overly so reached Draco's level.

"Nice Potter, I've got..."

He never got the chance to finish as Harry instead of stopping launched his broom into top speed.

He heard Draco swear behind him, then the sound of his broom accelerating.

The Snitch dodged to the left so that it was positioned right in from of the sun.

Both Seekers skidded to a stop in mid air; they were hovering several hundred meters above the pitch, the other players looking no bigger than insects.

"Bloody hell!!" swore Draco from just below him "Where'd it go?"

"I haven't got the foggiest." He replied "Or perhaps sunniest would be a more appropriate term." turning and beginning to drop back down he had gone five feet when he spotted the ball in question and took off, this time Draco was ready and was right beside him, though Harry's Dragon soon began to pull away.

The snitch was flying down towards the pitch and the pair were so focused on it that they did not see the Bludgers until it was almost too late.

They did not know which team had knocked them their way but both had less than a second too react.

Both pulled up hard, the Bludger that hurtled through the space they had just been occupying after colliding with the Snitch sending it swirling off to the side before it regained control of itself and dived down, but that was the least of Harry's troubles as dodging the first Bludger took him straight into the path of the second.

The Bludger smashed hard into the tail of his broom sending him and his broom into a vertical spin.

The force was so great he lost his grip on his broom, sending him falling through the air, during his spin he caught sight of his broom responding to the magic's programmed into it as it began stabilising itself and hovering in the air exactly where he had fallen from it, now many meters away and getting more distant by the second.

He saw Draco who had recovered from his escape manoeuvre and was diving down after the snitch, not aware that Harry was in freefall behind him.

And then he saw the ground many hundred feet below him.

This was going to hurt.

* * *

AUTHORS NOTE 1: I had to do at least one Quidditch match in this story and I thought it was about time for another cliff hanger as well, feel free to shout at me.

AUTHORS NOTE 2: Also if you usually read this on the Harry Potter FanFic Archive I apologise but I have not been able to update it for a while as it keeps saying I do not have permission to see my own Account Information.

AUTHORS NOTE 3: I want to apologise again to those new readers who may not have seen my previous Authors Notes on the subject about the early chapters, specifically the chapters in Sunnydale ad I know they are bad I just could not find a good way of introducing the Scoobies to the non BTVS fans, introducing Adam and James and explaining their histories, and forming the appropriate links to the Scoobies and making the connections which brought the Scoobies across the Atlantic to reunite them with Anne and Adam.

AUTHORS NOTE 4: Lastly I am going to be a bit repetitive and point out again that I know a lot more people read these stories than actually review them, to those that do review them I appreciate every one and to those that don't all I need is a 'great chapter' comment or even something more critical like a consistency error that you have spotted because I know I have made them (well done if you spotted them and if you have please point them out), so please just let me know that people are actually reading this story and aren't just hitting the link by accident. Thanks.


	98. CH98 The Element Of Air

Chapter 98 – The Element Of Air

Chapter 98 – The Element Of Air

FLASHBACK

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date: Unknown_

_Country:Unknown_

_Location:Unknown_

_Time: An Eternity In A Second_

"I am not liking the look of those cliffs Adam." Stated Harry "Isn't there somewhere a little more flat that we could study air? And possibly a bit cooler as well."

They were standing on a long stone cliff in the middle of nowhere, all that was around then were brownish rocks, a few shrubs, a termite mound, lots and lots of dust and dirt and one odd looking lizard standing on a rock watching them curiously.

The cliff itself was actually part of a valley but the other side of it was several dozen feet away and about two thirds of the height, at the bottom of the valley out of the direct sunlight was a trickle of a stream, around which a little more plant life existed, but not much.

"We need thermals and we need wind and here there are both." Adam replied before looking skyward "You see those birds."

Harry, looking away from the cliff face that he had been very carefully looking down (he didn't mind heights as long as there was a broom or Hippogriph to keep him there), he cautiously took a few steps back from the edge then looked up, in the sky several dark shapes were spiralling upwards.

"Yeah."

"All of those are predators or scavengers and they are using the thermals. These thermals are generated by the cool air that blows along the valley being sucked out by lower air pressure around the cliffs where hotter air has risen; they use the lift to soar higher and higher to allow them to scout for food."

"Right."

"Notice how they don't flap their wings, even when taking off they simply jump off the cliff or wherever they are roosting and the warm air lifts them up."

Harry was still watching the birds when he heard the sound of running feet. He looked down just in time to see Adam jump off the edge of the cliff.

"ADAM!!" he shouted before he realised that he was not falling and that the wind had just increased in speed, forcing him to shade his eyes to avoid dirt collecting in them.

Through the new clouds of dust being stirred up by the wind he could see that the two edges of Adam's cloak had become fixed in to straight lines as if a metal rod had been sown into them and that the end of his cloak was somehow attached to one of his ankles. His arms were gripping the leading edges and were adjusted them in the stronger winds, angling them for maximum lift to the extend that he was literally hovering in mid air; in this position he bore quite a resemblance to Batman.

In a carefully executed move he re-angled his make shift wings, gaining a few meters in height before leaning forward and gliding across the canyon, half closing his wings and diving towards the edge as he got closer.

As he reached the edge Adam opened his wings wide once more, stopping his forward momentum before releasing his cloak back to its normal state allowing him to drop to the ground.

Turning he called back to Harry.

"When you have good control of the Air Element with just the smallest surface area to catch the wind and some amount of skill you will be able to do as they do and more."

END FLASHBACK

* * *

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date: 13__th __October 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Quidditch Pitch_

_Time: Afternoon_

The Bludger smashed hard into the tail of his broom sending him and his broom into a vertical spin.

The force was so great he lost his grip on his broom, sending him falling through the air, during his spin he caught sight of his broom responding to the magic's programmed into it stabilising itself and hovering in the air exactly where he had fallen from it now many meters away and getting more distant by the second.

He saw Draco who had recovered from his escape manoeuvre and was diving down after the snitch, not aware that Harry was in freefall behind him.

And then he saw the ground many hundred feet below him.

This was going to hurt.

* * *

"Oh God, look!!" shouted Tara, being the first to notice Harry's freefall as he emerged from the glare of the sun.

There were cries of alarm from all around the stadium as people spotted the accelerating shape of Harry Potter.

"Arry!!" Fleur cried dashing to the front of the box and beginning to transform.

"Stop!!" order Adam who unlike most of the rest of the boxes occupants was still sitting down.

"What do you mean stop!!" shouted Buffy "He's going to be killed if we don't stop him."

"Wait!!" he added, calmly standing and walking to the front of the box, grabbing Fleur's arm just as she tried to take off.

"Let me go!!" she screeched, trying to wrestle herself free, but Adam's grip was just too strong.

"What on earth is Harry doing?" exclaimed Xander, who was the only one with a pair of binoculars.

* * *

Harry was thinking as fast as he could, spinning over in the air with a well positioned arm he cast a wandless Accio on his broom.

Spinning over again he began altering his robes, extending their reach and straightening the leading edges so that he could form a wing.

Completing his alteration he looked for Malfoy and the Snitch, he caught sight of them engaged in a high speed chase as the ball led Draco around and between the hoops at one end of the pitch.

Smiling he worked out his descent before pulling his arms and legs in and diving like a missile towards the ground.

* * *

"Spread out you suicidal idiot!!" bellowed Anne "Are you trying to impale the ground with your head!!"

All the while people were shouting around the stands.

"LET ME GO!!" screamed Fleur, completely transformed, fighting Adam to go to her beloved as he shot towards the ground.

"We've got to do something!!" shouted Dawn.

"We can stop him." Announced Willow as she and Tara stood and began to gather their magic.

"No, do nothing." Corrected Adam.

"We can not do nothing!!" shouted Anne.

"Very well," Adam sighed in slight defeat, acting as though Harry was not plummeting through the air towards certain death.

Turning to the pitch where the players were just figuring out why the crowd were shouting and screaming he called to the player with the fastest broom.

"GINNY!!" he shouted, getting her attention as she and the rest of the Gryffindor team surged towards their falling comrade in an attempt to catch him "Get Harry's broom to him!!"

She nodded, altering course towards the broom which was already obeying the summoning charm Harry had cast at it.

"Is that all you're going to do!!" shouted a panicking Dawn.

"Yes." He nodded, still restraining Fleur "That's all I need do."

"But she won't reach..."

"Oh my God!!" Tara exclaimed interrupting her "Look!!"

* * *

Harry was watching Draco and the Snitch very carefully, he was aware of his team mates flying towards him but he already knew what to do.

The snitch started to climb back into the sky, Draco immediately altering his course to intercept, still right on its tail.

Picking his moment he swirled in mid air, generating as much wind as he could, enhancing it with his Elemental abilities before levelling out and straightening his arms.

The entire pitch fell silent as they watched the bat shape that they knew as Harry Potter stop falling and instead entered a slow rising glide across the pitch. His team stopped dead almost creating a mid air pile up, floating on the currents of air he moved above and just behind Malfoy's position before closing his makeshift wing and diving once again.

* * *

Draco was ecstatic, at last he was going to do it, the Snitch was right in front of him and Potter was no where to be seen.

He was going to beat Potter, for the first time EVER he was going to beat Potter to the Snitch.

It was less than a meter away, nothing could stop him now.

Fifty centimetres, thirty, twe...

Something big and red blasted past him, before spiralling off.

"What the..." he never got the chance to finish as the distraction caused by the object kept his attention averted just long enough for him to forget that he was heading straight for the hoops at the Gryffindor end of the pitch.

* * *

Harry grinned in triumph as he redeployed his wings, bringing himself about he reduced the wind pressure on his wings, slowing his descend towards the pitch where the shocked and ecstatic students were already charging towards him.

Slowly reaching the grass he collapsed his wing and ran himself to a stop just before he got tackled to the ground by a fully transformed and very relieved Veela.

"Oh Arry." She sobbed engulfing him in a tight hug "I thought you were going to die."

He chuckled lightly hugging her back, trying to ignore how sharp fingernails currently were.

"Didn't you know...I'm virtually indestructible."

They never got the chance to say any more as his team landed around him and hauled them to their feet.

"That was incredible Harry."

"How did you do it?"

"That Bludger at Crabbe."

"You were flying without a broom."

"How did you..."

Fortunately the next person to arrive was Ginny who threw his broom to him as she approached, giving him and Fleur the chance to dodge most of the questions by taking off and doing a victory lap around the pitch holding the Snitch triumphantly.

As he approached the hoops at one end of the pitch he caught sight of Draco; hanging from the ring of the tallest hoop while his legs attempted to wrap around the pole.

"You alright there Malfoy?" he asked stopping beside him.

"Oh yes, I'm just dandy," he replied, his voice thick with sarcasm "I enjoy hanging onto wooden poles many meters above the ground with no other means of suspension except my rapidly slipping hands after just loosing at Quidditch to the Boy-Who-Lived AGAIN."

"Oh well," nodded Harry grinning "In that case, I will leave you to your hanging."

"Oh for Merlin's sake Potter!" he shouted at them "Get me down!"

Trying to hold in her laughter Fleur summoned Draco's broom from where it had impaled itself in the ground before floating it over to him.

"Thank you." He reluctantly added as he climbed aboard before darting off towards the Changing Rooms.

* * *

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date: 13__th __October 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Corridors _

_Time:Evening_

Ginny had just left the Gryffindor Common Room, the celebration party was in full swing but she knew that if she did not get out of there for a few minutes her head would explode.

Heading down a flight of stairs that as usual was refusing to cooperate in allowing her to go the way she wanted to she had the fortune to end up bumping into Draco.

"Oh...hi."

"Hello Ginny." he replied, seeming rather down.

"Still upset about the match?" she asked.

"Yeah, the whole team is rather unpopular at the moment and being the most singled out member of the team, I take the most unpopularity."

"Mind if I walk with you?"

"I'd like that."

They walked in silence down several corridors, not actually speaking until an odd noise echoed down the hall they were in.

"Did you hear that?"

Draco nodded.

There was a slow grunt from behind them.

Slowly they turned around...then looked up.

"Oh...shit."

* * *

Harry, Hermione and Ron had been feeling the same as Ginny had about the party, there was a certain point where most people forgot what the party was in aid of and just started going mad, that moment had just occurred.

"I swear each party gets worse than the last." Sighed Hermione as the portal closed behind them.

"Who was it that brought the Fire Whisky?" gasped Ron, still trying to recover from when he had taken a long swig of what he thought at the time was Butterbeer but soon discovered was not.

"Spike I think," Harry replied "He's not really the Butterbeer type is he."

"It's definitely more entertaining with Anne's lot as well," smiled Hermione "Xander doing that silly dance of his. I had a great talk to Willow and Tara about Wiccan Magic."

"How can you have a discussion in the middle of all that partying?" asked Ron.

"I think the answer to that is with great difficulty." Replied Harry with a chuckle "But only Tara, Willow and Hermione cou...ARRRGH."

Harry fell to the floor clutching his head.

"Harry!!" Hermione exclaimed moving to his side.

Harry's eyes were screwed shut in pain. The paintings around them were staring in shock, Harry had been on the floor for a good ten seconds before his eyes flew open and he launched himself to his feet and down the corridor, Hermione and Ron in hot pursuit.

* * *

Ginny and Draco ducked as the club swung around barely missing their heads.

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, OH SHIT!!" Draco repeated pulling her backwards avoiding getting hit by the club on its return swing.

"Don't swear!!" Ginny managed to get out as Draco again threw her out the way of the club.

"Of all the times to swear," duck "This is most defiantly one of them!!" the club missed yet again...but the fist didn't; catching Draco in the chest.

They were both thrown back over ten feet in a tangle of robes.

Draco started struggling to extract his wand from the depths of his clothes while still trying to recover from the impact as the troll ambled towards them.

Ginny looked up in time to see Harry, Hermione and Ron charge round the corner only to have Harry come to a dead stop so fast that Ron collided with him, or to be more precise their heads collided throwing them both into the wall knocking them out and somehow managing to rebound and fall back on top of Hermione causing all three to fall to the ground with Hermione conscious but totally pinned to the ground under their combined weight of her friends.

"It's not fair, it's just not fair!!" Ginny complained dodging another swing "The rescue party is NOT supposed to knock itself out!!"

"So much for the bloody cavalry!!" Draco yelled as he got picked off the floor by his leg.

Draco was still struggling with his robes, his wand dropped to the floor with a clatter.

"Oh Balls." he exclaimed still hanging in the trolls fist

"Don't sw..." she began.

"This is not the bloody time to tell me not to bloody swear!!" the other fist mist him by inches "Pick up the BLOODY WAND!!"

She grabbed the wand as the other hand came around knocking her to the ground again.

_Think, think, think, how would Harry or Hermione solve this? How would Ron?_

_Oh...Of course!!_

"Wingardium Leviosa!!" the club hung in the air just as the troll was about to bring it crashing down on Draco.

The troll looked up to see where its club had gone.

"Finite Incantatem!!"

The club dropped.

The troll over balanced slightly, losing its grip on Draco and staggering back.

The club missed the troll and collided with Draco where he had fallen after being dropped.

Or more specifically it collided with Draco's head.

"Oh...Sorry."

He fell to the floor unconscious.

The club then bounced off the stone floor and collided with Ginny, knocked her to the ground.

She heard a scuffling behind her.

"Incarcerous!!" Hermione shouted as cords shot out of the end of her wand, she had finally managed to partially excavate herself so that her wand arm was free.

The cords flew from her wand, wrapped around the trolls legs and arms binding them to its body.

The troll started to topple forward directly towards Draco and Ginny.

"GINNY!!" Hermione shouted as male voice called out something uninterruptible.

The troll was hit by a wave of blue magic and was sent falling in the opposite direction.

Ginny rolled over in time to see Adam lowering his staff.

Dumbledore, Snape, Anne and the younger Scoobies came charging round the corner as Harry and Ron groaned and started to regain consciousness.

"Thanks for that one Ron," Harry groaned steadying himself on the wall and helping Hermione to her feet "I really needed another headache after that vision."

"Sorry mate, just don't stop so fast next time." Ron managed climbing to his feet "Why were you running anyway, because whatever it was it..."

Ron had just looked up in time to see Ginny move Malfoy's head into her lap

"Ginny. What the hell are you doing?" he asked dumbstruck, obviously not quite ready to see any man's head in her lap, though he quickly calmed his expression when he remembered he wasn't supposed to be interfering.

"Don't swear." Hermione chimed in, looking a little annoyed that neither of the boys had actually asked if she was alright after having both of them fall on her.

Snape moved to Malfoy and checked his pulse ignoring Ginny.

"He's still alive." he said standing and drawing his wand.

"Mobilicorpus."

Draco's body levitated of the floor.

"What happened?" asked Buffy confused.

"Draco and I were attacked by that troll." said Ginny pointing back to where the troll was.

Hermione turned back to where the troll had fallen.

"Errr...what troll?"

Everyone turned to where the troll had been laying; all that was left was the cords from Hermione's spell.

Ginny started starring and gaping at the cords that had held the beast not moments before.

"It was...there was...it...I..."

Ginny then cut herself off by passing out, Harry's lightning reflexes (although not up to their usual standard due to the knock out) were enough to catch her before she hit the ground.

"I suggest we remove Miss. Weasley and Mr. Malfoy to the Hospital Wing so that Poppy can examine them," Dumbledore stated taking charge "As well as having a look at Harry's and Mr. Weasley's heads."

* * *

A few minutes later in the Hospital Wing Harry, Ron, Draco and Ginny were in beds, the former two are conscious as was the last, Harry and Ron have had their heads treated and Ginny had had to take a Pepper-Up Potion. Adam and Dumbledore were standing by one of the beds; Hermione and Fleur are perched on the edges of Ron's and Harry's beds, while Snape paces the room, much to the annoyance of Madam Pomfrey who is tending to Draco's head. Adam is holding his staff in his left hand while he twirls his silver disk in his right, his expression thoughtful.

Hagrid walks in to the room followed by Filch, Dumbledore turns to face them.

"There is no sign of it Professor Dumbledore sir, Mr. Filch has checked the school with the aid of the ghosts and I've checked the grounds and the forest, it's not on the premises sir."

"Thank you both." Dumbledore nodded before turning back to the assembled group as Hagrid and Filch left.

"Where did the troll go?" Hermione asked to no one in particular.

"Good question Miss Granger and one that definitely needs answering." Dumbledore replied "This is the second time that people or monsters have just disappeared from the school and its grounds."

"Second?" Ron asked

"The Death Eaters." Dumbledore elaborated "They vanished shortly after the attack during the summer."

"I don't think the two events are connected," theorised Adam "The former of the two disappearances I believe to be the result of James's magic, he could have pulled them out to avoid capture...that's why he teleported them out of the grounds."

Harry sat forward "Does that mean that he can just teleport troops straight into the grounds."

"What about the Apparation Wards." Hermione reminded them.

"Apparation Wards would not affect Teleporting, and Wards are only affective if the person trying to get around them is less powerful than they are...James is not."

"So he could just Teleport straight in here right now." Ron said drawing his wand.

"Not anymore." Dumbledore informed them "Adam and myself have added extra wards and layers protections to Hogwarts since that attack, Teleporting is now just as impossible as Apparation."

"And even before the additional protections were added, he still couldn't send people into Hogwarts itself or he would have sent them so that they were surrounding you, he can only pull people out with that amount of skill, the wards are strongest against those trying to get in."

Ron nodded his understanding and Adam continued.

"His magic was strong enough to lower the wards over a specific area to let them walk in and to disguise their approach, pulling them out is simple in comparison or at least it was, now that we have added additional protections it is impossible without us knowing about it."

"Oh." Ron replied "What do you mean disguise their approach?"

Adam turned to Dumbledore who nodded his permission.

"The Headmaster of Hogwarts is fully aware of anyone who enters the grounds and if he is not in a position to be told the castle lets him know."

"What do you mean the castle lets him know?" asked Ginny

"When the castle was made it wasn't just constructed it was made magically," Hermione explained "Which means it's alive, honestly am I the only one who has ever read Hogwarts: A History."

"Yes." Ron replied earning him a glare from Hermione.

"Very good Miss Granger," Congratulated the Headmaster "Ten points to Gryffindor."

Hermione blushed; Ron rolled his eyes at her while Harry rolled his eyes at both of them.

"Anyway," the Headmaster continued "Their presence was hidden from myself and the castle, it was only thanks to Adam that I knew they were even here."

"But how if more protections have been added, how could that troll get in and get out without you knowing?" asked Hermione

"We don't know?" answered Adam "But we are going to find out?"

"We can help!!" Hermione said jumping up excited at the prospect of solving the mystery or more importantly the research involved.

The Headmaster chuckled.

"Very well Miss Granger, I suggest we all meet tomorrow in the Library immediately after dinner."

"Headmaster." Snape interrupted "Are you sure this is a good idea, the research involved would no doubt mean access to the Restricted Section, is it wise to allow them open access."

Ron almost growled.

"I am sure Severus that Professor Potter and his friends are not going to start dabbling in dark magic's." Dumbledore finished with a smile.

"Very well Headmaster." Finished with a sigh.

* * *

AUTHORS NOTE: The second half of this chapter I was a little unsure about, when I got around to rereading this part of my original draft (which I wrote years ago) it seemed similar to another chapter I had read in another story (the name of which I cannot remember) and I honestly don't know if I wrote this first and then read the other story, if I read the other story first then forgot about it until just the idea of this chapter remained or any other variation thereof, but encase when I originally wrote this chapter I did base the idea of someone else's idea I feel it is only right to says so.


	99. CH99 Fluffy Returns

Chapter 99 – Fluffy Returns

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date:14__th __October 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Great Hall_

_Time:Early Morning_

The following morning Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny were all sitting down to breakfast, along with a few others scattered around the hall, being the day after a Quidditch victory meant that almost all those involved in the celebration would be late risers this morning and as the match was against Slytherin it meant all those in said house would be in no hurry to rise and most of those in the others would only just have finished celebrating.

Hermione, while sitting at the table reading one of her books from her birthday took a glance at Ginny sitting next to her. She was starring intently at the Slytherin table and more specifically at a certain blond haired Slytherin Prince.

Hermione was beginning to wonder about the couple, it could actually work. Her father would have a fit of course....actually forget her father....his would probably have a seizure....which wasn't really all that bad when you thought about his allegiances.

________________________________________________________________________

Meanwhile up at the head table, Buffy was bored, if there was one thing she hated it was mornings, especially when there was the prospect of lengthy research in the near future.

Scanning the room she observed those already up, the hall was mostly empty as it was only just six thirty and breakfast had only been going for half an hour; she had observed that most of the students at weekends came down to breakfast around nine, apparently because of the parties in three of the Common Rooms last night that time was likely to be put back to around eleven, being a Slayer though she was used to not getting much sleep so the late night had very little affect upon her.

There was at most fifty students in the hall and four members of staff consisting of Filch, Flitwick, Vector and herself, the rest of the Scoobies were suffering similarly to the students.

The usual Gryffindor group were at their table, she exchanged a quick hello glance with Hermione before returning to her toast and pumpkin juice.

Pumpkin juice.

Who ever came up with the idea of pumpkin juice? It's not that it tasted bad; she was just dying to have some good old fashioned orange.

Her mind had begun to drift when she heard an almighty crash from the middle of the room.

Looking up, what she saw made her fall backwards off of her chair.

Standing in the middle of the room was a huge three headed dog.

There was instant chaos, students started running all over the place. Teachers trying to calm them down and the dog causing more chaos every moment.

The dog was growling, barking and snarling (three heads remember)

_THREE heads, who ever heard of a three headed dog?_

The dog bounded forward snapping the tables that it had been precariously balancing on like matchsticks before landing in front of the teachers table.

Most of the students had reached the door and were getting as far away as possible.

Professor Vector had run to get Dumbledore, while (for some reason) Filch went to get Hagrid.

Why Hagrid, alright he was big and did have a big dog but not THAT big in that little cottage of his.

Professor Flitwick moved forward and attempted to stun the creature but the spell wasn't powerful enough and just impacted harmlessly.

The dog swiped at him with one of its paws, but Flitwick cast a spell on himself and flew up into the air above the dogs head.

_My god, that man's a fast caster, well Dumbledore did say he was a champion duellist, I just thought the opponents couldn't hit him because of his size._

Buffy vaulted over the table and started trying to distract the heads from trying to bite off Flitwick's feet.

One head swiped around and knocked Flitwick out of the air, sliding to a halt at the other end of the hall.

All three heads then turned to Buffy and started trying to decapitate her.

Buffy was spending all her time trying to avoid getting ripped to shreds, one lucky paw caught her in the side and sent her flying through the air to land dazed against the wall.

When she looked up she saw the dog towering over her.

She didn't have the energy to get up, this was it.

"How much is that dog in the window,"

_Wait, is that singing?_

"The one with the waggily tail."

_It is singing._

"How much is that dog in the window,"

Looking to her left she saw Harry and Ron hands round each others shoulders, swaying while singing.

_Are they TOTALLY insane, this is NOT the time for a sing-along._

"I do hope he is for sale."

Buffy saw the dog above her start to sway, it began to stumble slightly

_You've got to be kidding me, singing sends it to sleep....Hang on....I'm underneath it._

The dog started to fall forward.

"Accio Buffy!!"

Buffy shot out from under the dog into Harry's arms.

The dog collapsed to the floor.

Ron bowed low "Thank you Hogwarts and goodnight."

"We're here till July." Harry added laughing, before turning to Buffy "Are you alright?"

"I think so." answered Buffy looking at what remained of the Great Hall.

All the tables were smashed, the benches were also in pieces, there were broken plates covered in food covering the floor, which were already being cleaned up by the House Elves

At the far end of the Hall Ginny and Hermione were leaning over Flitwick, who was unsteadily getting to his feet.

"Dog in the window?" Buffy asked in disbelief.

"Singing sends Fluffy to sleep." Harry explained.

"Yes, but why THAT song?"

"You'd rather we sang 'Who let the dogs out'?" Harry smirked before they both burst out laughing.

When they finally managed to stop, Buffy asked her next question:

"Fluffy?"

"Don't ask me, Hagrid named him."

"If you think that's funny you should meet fang." Ron commented

"I've met him." she told them "Why, how bad does he get?"

"Oh he can be deadly," replied Harry sarcastically "If he's in a bad mood he could slobber you to death in under a minute."

"Thanks for not letting me get turned into a Scooby Snack....or a pancake." she said turning to Harry and Ron and giving them thank you hugs.

"I accept the Snack bit," Harry answered "But the pancake was not me....I was just in the way."

"Then who?" Buffy asked confused.

Harry then moved out of the way, behind him was Draco with his wand hanging limply in his hand.

Buffy moved to him.

"Thank you."

Draco shrugged "Your welco...." He was interrupted by Buffy hugging him tightly.

"Air, air, AIR!!"

________________________________________________________________________

The sight that greeted Adam and Dumbledore when they entered the room was, to say the least....unusual.

All five tables were smashed.

There was food covering the floor

Professor Flitwick was being helped up by Hermione and Ginny (which was interesting to see as he couldn't exactly put his arms round their shoulders).

And Harry and Ron were standing, starring at Buffy giving Draco Malfoy a bone crushing hug.

"Now if that is not a strange sight, I don't know what is." Adam commented.

Buffy immediately jumped back from Draco as Adam's raised an eyebrow in her direction.

"Thank you hug....He saved my life....They all did." she was beginning to babble, most people did that under Adam's gaze, it was a nightmare trying to concentrate (especially if you were female).

Adam turned to Dumbledore.

"I think we are going to have to increase the pace of research Albus."

________________________________________________________________________

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date:17__th __October 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Muggle Defence Classroom_

_Time:Late Afternoon_

A few days later during one of the joint MD, DA and Duelling lessons.

Adam was really pleased at the progress of the class, they had proceeded through almost all the hand-to-hand weapons that they were teaching them and had a basic understanding of each, he and the Scoobies would have to start teaching them the true mastery of weapons soon. The group's skill with their wands and Elemental powers had also increased.

Harry was a most proficient teacher once he got going and several of the students could almost beat him in a duel, the main three being Hermione (thanks to the gift of extra power that she had received, both Elemental and magical making each of her spells about twice as dangerous as it had been previously), Draco (who now as he was training and fighting alongside Harry was rapidly catching him up with regards skill, especially when he had a small arsenal of not quite so light but not exactly dark spells from his days as the dark prince of Slytherin) and lastly and rather surprisingly, the only other Slytherin and the only Slytherin girl attending the class; Blaise Zibini. As well as having a few of the not so light spells that Draco possessed (as well as a few of her own) she also had lightning fast reflexes (which explains why she was on the Quidditch Team) to the extent that they were at least equal to that of the Fleur and Colette (predatory birds needed to be able to react fast when chasing prey), Adam had heard Fleur and Harry talking about her and wondering whether she could be part Veela, but her hair being jet black kind of scotched that idea, even one sixteen of Veela blood would make the hair blond at the least.

"Well done everyone," Adam began "In the last few weeks we've covered armed combat with the use of quarterstaffs, axes, daggers, short swords, rapiers and broadswords, next week and the week after we will move onto the use of Samurai swords, the hardest to master, as well as incorporating Elemental skills into wizard duels."

Adam turned to retrieve his cloak and staff from the back of the room; allowing his mind to move back to the much more pressing matter of the attacks.

There had been another two creature incidents after Fluffy's appearance in the Great Hall. A group of third year Hufflepuff's had come across a Dementor and a fifth year Ravenclaw had come across an Acromantula.

Luckily in both cases no one had been hurt, in the former Harry had been nearby and in the latter Ron, both had managed to subdue the creatures before they had caused any damage, he was especially proud of Ron for that, he had faced his fears and defeated them, it was amazing what you could achieve when you had to protect others.

The thing that was confusing the researchers was the fact that in the case of Fluffy, the place where Fluffy had been kept was not altered in the slightest, which meant Fluffy hadn't moved an inch, so if it wasn't Fluffy that meant the other creatures were not real either, this was confirmed by Harry after he snuck out of the school to speak to Aragog who confirmed that none of his larger children had even left the forest.

On a happier note the Ball has been booked for the weekend after next and after his return from captivity he had noticed how Hermione, Draco's and their respective partner's had changed, they had all got a bit more flirtatious, especially Draco and Ginny.

"Professor," Hermione began, though she quickly corrected herself when he turned to look at her "Sorry Adam, but the week after next is the Halloween Ball."

"The week after then," he corrected "And while I think of it," he smiled turning to his fellow MD Professor "Anne, may I escort you to the Halloween Ball?"

She looked more than a bit stunned by the, it was evident that she thought of him more as an older brother or possibly an uncle and he knew she was thinking that that made for all kinds of unpleasantness on a date.

"Don't panic, I'm not asking you out," he elaborated, allowing her to breathe a sigh of relief "Simply put, I am not aware of you having anyone to accompany you and I know I do not have anyone either."

"Sure," she sighed in relief "Why not."

________________________________________________________________________

On the other side of the room Ginny and Hermione were getting ready to leave.

"Lucky woman," Ginny commented "Why did he have to be a Professor, or I would have asked him....If I weren't already going with Draco that is."

Hermione chuckled "I'm just wondering if Ron will actually ask me to the dance rather than assuming that I am going with him."

Ginny grinned.

"With how long it took you two to actually get together most of us were beginning to wonder if one or both of you were gay."

"What!!" Hermione exclaimed "Whatever made you think I was gay?"

"Well you haven't had any boyfriends at Hogwarts and Ron had never had much luck with girls."

Hermione was about to answer when she looked over Ginny's shoulder and grinned before turning and walking away with a smile, rather relieved to be leaving the conversation.

Confused Ginny turned to see what she was looking at only to come face to face with a rather nervous Draco Malfoy.

"Ginny, I was....Well I was wondering, if maybe if you weren't too busy, or if you don't have any previous engagements, if you would like to accompany me to the Halloween Ball?"

He was babbling.

He never babbled.

He looked terrified, she'd better say something or he would apologize for wasting her time, as if she would say no when they were dating.

"Well, I'm sorry I...." he began disappointedly.

"Yes."

He paused not quite believing what he had heard "Pardon?"

"Yes, I will go with you to the Ball." she said beaming at him.

"Oh great, thank you, should I meet you outside your Common Room at about...."

"Seven." she decided.

"Ok great, ok, thank you. See you later then."

"Bye." Ginny replied inwardly grinning, what had happened to the Slytherin Prince they all knew and loathed.

________________________________________________________________________

Hermione watched from a distance seeing the pleased smiles break out on their faces she guessed Draco had been successful, now if only Ron would ask her to the ball she....

"Hermione."

________________________________________________________________________

Adam had donned his cloak, picked up his staff and was waiting for Anne (all the other Scoobies had already left with the students) when Ron made his move, meaning that there were only a few of them left to witness it, he had just seen Ginny and Draco's exchange and judging from the pleased looks on their faces it had gone to plan, from what he could pick up with his extra sensitive hearing this one was going just as well, if not better.

________________________________________________________________________

"I'll see you in the Common Room at seven then." Ron said very pleased with himself.

"Ok, see you then." she replied, almost wanting to squeal with delight, they may have already been going out but for him to actually ask her to the Ball as his first choice made her go all weak.

Ron walked to grab his stuff, he would have waited but Hermione had told him she wanted to do some extra research and to go on without her.

As soon as he left the room and closed the door, she squealed with delight, she actually squealed.

The man she loved was going to take her to the ball.

As he passed Adam gave her a slight smile.

"Calm down Cinderella."

________________________________________________________________________

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date:17__th __October 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Muggle Defence Classroom_

_Time:Early Evening_

"It's was inevitable really." Harry agreed "I mean everyone knew they would get together."

Thud.

"It was just a matter of when."

Thud.

"And whether either of them would ever actually admit to having feelings for the other."

Thud.

"Yeah but from what I've heard," Anne replied "Ron isn't exactly the sort to know the best way to woo a girl."

Thud.

"Well he obviously didn't do too bad earlier." Buffy added.

Thud.

"I didn't woo Fleur at all but I still got her."

Thud.

"Well it just shows she knows when she's onto a good thing." Buffy grinned.

Thud.

"Where is she now anyway?"

Thud.

"Visiting her family, she and her sister are spending the evening with them, it's a Veela thing. Birds stay in the nest until they are almost fully grown and Gabrielle is obviously not that so every few weeks she spends the evening back at the Chateau and Fleur joins them."

Duller thud,

Clang.

"Bugger."

"Ha ha!" cheered Buffy "Told you we were better than you."

"Well you are Slayers," he replied walking over to target board and bending down to retrieve his knife from the floor where it had dropped when it missed the target "That does give you a bit of an advantage."

"It's still satisfying to know we can beat you," grinned Anne as she and Buffy walked over to the target board and began pulling out the knives embedded in it "And returning to our previous topic of conversation; the squealing brunette."

"You know, that smile that Hermione was wearing when she came out of here earlier was so big I thought she was going to strain something." Grinned the other Slayer.

"I'm just glad they...." Harry never got the chance to finish as their Alliance rings began to glow and images flicked into their minds and the minds of many others around Hogwarts.

FLASH

The Chateau Delacour.

FLASH

Dimitri, Delphine, Fleur and Gabrielle.

FLASH

Fire.

FLASH

Explosions.

FLASH

As they came back to themselves Harry was already running before his vision fully returned, Buffy and Anne close behind.

Squeezing his ring Harry sent the confirmation message as well as the rendezvous location for those at Hogwarts back along the link, but he wasn't going to wait for reinforcements, his family was in danger.

Skidding into the empty staffroom (the room with the nearest fireplace) he didn't even slow down, with a quick hand gesture he sent a gust of wind across the pot of floo powder and into the fire, sending just enough of the stuff into the flames.

"Chateau Delacour!!" he bellowed as he dived straight into the fire, barely giving the powder time to establish the connection.

As Buffy and Anne slid in the door, they turned to look at each other both wanting to go but both knowing that someone needed to organise the rest of the reinforcements.

In the end it was the first to get to the fireplace that went, which was Buffy after she shoved Anne back towards the door with her superior strength.

"I'll get you for that." The latter swore as Willow, Tara and Hermione came charging in.

* * *

AUTHORS NOTE: I may have already said this but I started this story before we knew Blaise was a guy so in my story she's a girl so I don't want to see any reviews saying that I got the gender wrong.


	100. CH100 In To The Fire

Chapter 100 – In To The Fire

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date:17__th __October 2001 AD_

_Country:France – The French Riviera – Marseeleveyre Mountains_

_Location:Chateau Delacour_

_Time:Early Evening_

Harry exploded out of the Sitting Room fireplace with the force of a man who was out for blood.

The room he emerged into was full of smoke; small fires were burning the curtains and any other fabrics around the broken windows were rapidly igniting.

"FLEUR!! GABRIELLE!!....DIMITRI!! DEPLHINE!!"

No response came above the ever growing roar that was the fire.

_FLEUR!! _He shouted down the link _FLEUR!!_

He knew she was alive as if she were not he would be dead, so she must be unconscious somewhere.

Moving out of the Sitting Room he twisted the ring around on his finger and retrieved his swords before twisting it back to resume his former appearance, though now more heavily armed.

There were more fires burning throughout the house and the front doors had been blasted open, one was lying on the ground smoking while the other was hanging by its one remaining hinge, the Entrance Hall was covered in blast marks and most of the furniture including the hand rails for the stairs had been splintered into dozens of deadly looking spikes.

A snarling bark emanated from behind him and he dodged sideways just in time to see a Fire Wolf fly past him and collide hard with the opposite wall.

"Valkyries!!" he hissed, his anger that they would dare attack his family rising to the surface.

Moving into a battle stance he used a swing of his sword to elementally pull the fire from a burning section of carpet onto his blades.

"Come and get me."

The beast stood and took another dive at him.

Dropping to the floor and crossing his swords he held them firm as the beast dived overhead, his blades slicing through its shoulders, stomach and thighs.

The creature fell with an agonised scream, it's useless body slamming into the wall behind him, never to rise again.

Turing back to his goal Harry charged up the stairs, leaping them four at a time so as to get to the top as fast as he could.

He heard one of the Slayers emerge from the fireplace and call after him but he couldn't stop now.

Reaching the top he did a hard right turn and made a rapid jump to avoid falling down the hole where the floor had burnt through and collapsed onto the floor below.

Hearing a growl from a room further down the hall he raised his flaming swords and made for the noise.

________________________________________________________________________

Willow, Tara and Hermione were the next to arrive tumbling out of the disintegrating fireplace just before the lintel collapsed in on it causing a burst of green flame as its connection to the floo network was severed.

"No one else can come through." explained Hermione "We're on our own."

"Then let's find Fleur's family quickly." Added Tara moving out into the hall the others close behind before stopping dead at the sight of the dead Fire Wolf.

"It's the Valkyrie." Explained Hermione drawing her wand "They work for Voldemort."

"Is that Valkyrie as in carrying away the dead?" asked Willow.

"Yes, but they eat them when they take them." Finished Hermione as an explosion emanated from the direction of the front door.

"Harry and Buffy will have gone for Fleur's family;" guessed Tara "Let's try and buy them some time."

Heading towards the front door they had to jump sideways as a glass sphere full of what appeared to be lava sailed between them and exploded on the floor, leaving the flaming hot liquid to burn its way through the carpet.

Some specks of lava splashed on Willows dress.

"Ahh!! I'm on fire!!" she gasped beating at her dress.

Hermione rapidly cast a water charm, then pausing to think for a moment aimed her wand upwards for a few seconds before realigning her wand to so that the water fell on the other two.

"Hermione what are you doing?" gasped Willow as the water wasn't overly warm.

"If they are attacking us with fire it's safer for us to be wet."

"Oh right. Did anyone see what was out there?"

"I saw several Dark skinned people...." answered Tara.

"Valkyrie." Hermione supplied.

".... at least a dozen surrounding a cart which was holding more of those spheres of different sizes which were being loaded into a catapult and fired at us."

"Anything else?" Hermione asked.

"Several more of those wolf things like that one in the hall."

"Fire Wolves."

"Any ideas?" Willow asked.

"I vote kill them." Came a voice from behind them.

"Colette!! How did you....?"

"All of those at Hogwarts who are in The Alliance have been to the Chateau but I am the only one who knows where the castle is physically located." She explained moving up beside Hermione "I Apparated just outside the wards that have been put up by the attackers and walked across them before Apparating to the Sitting Room."

"Couldn't you bring anyone else with you?" asked Willow causing Colette to look at her with a shocked expression.

"Have you ever tried to Apparate someone else across the length of three countries and a twenty mile stretch of water," she replied "It's tiring enough doing it on your own, besides only Fleur or her parents can reveal the Chateaus location."

"Is anyone else coming then?"

"Only Adam," she replied "He's the only other person who knows exactly where the Chateau is. Portkey wards are also in place so no one is getting here that way, we're on our own."

________________________________________________________________________

On the roof of the Chateau a bolt of lightning struck, revealing the slightly smoking form of The Guardian.

"I hate travelling that way." He groaned beating himself down "One day I will find a form of travel that does not involve a major power drain, dragging your magic across hundreds of miles or setting yourself on fire."

He did not get the chance to say more as he was forced to duck as a large sphere of molten liquid sailed past him and smashed into one of the towers, setting it ablaze.

"Magma Sphere's." he said to the world in general "Wonderful."

Transforming into a falcon he took off, circling high to get a look at the Chateau.

It was burning badly, flames were coming from many windows and the smoke alone was making it hard to see. He was able to make out the group of Valkyrie with the catapult a few hundred meters from the front of the Chateau and the Witches that had arrived before him advancing on them, throwing fireballs and various other spells their way.

Luckily for all the parties teaching the large joint defence class the teaching sessions had been educational for all involved, this was proved when Willow banishing one of the chocks keeping the Catapult in place resulting in it going flying backwards as it launched its next Sphere, taking a pair of Valkyrie out in the process before rolling off down the hill, bits breaking off it as it went down the slope and smashed into a rock leaving it as little more than broken pieces of wood and metal.

Turning back to the Chateau he dived down towards the already burning Tower nearest him (The Aviary), entering through one of the windows he landed on one of the beams, the usual flying residence having already flown the coop leaving the room deserted.

Transforming back to his usual form he jumped down onto the floor, dodging the small fires and made his way through the smoke into the house.

________________________________________________________________________

Harry was almost beginning to regret his decision now; he should have left the demon and just kept searching.

Now he and Buffy were circling the beast which unfortunately for them turned out to be the same sort of demon that had attacked the Hogwarts express and had almost killed him in the process.

And the evidence that this thing, this Batros as Adam had called it, was dangerous was reinforced by the horribly sliced bodies of a pair of House Elves and two of the Delacour's human servants that the beast had been standing over when he entered.

Both he and Buffy were already sporting deep wounds; he had received a hard hit in his side from its tail (which unlike the last one he had faced was sporting a large mace with lots of long, thin and very sharp spikes on it) and Buffy had received three claws to her shoulder resulting in heavy bleeding from both of them, luckily the beast was not unwounded either as Buffy had got a good hit in with her toll hammer (she had got it shrunk so that it could be carried around at all times and then returned to normally when she touched it) as such the beast had several broken ribs as well as a deep wound through its hind leg where he had managed to stab it.

"I think this could be a problem." Sighed Buffy as the creature raised itself up, seemingly not noticing its injuries and drew its blades out of its chest armour.

"Why doesn't this thing die?" asked Buffy.

"If it helps I know breaking its neck can be very affective." He supplied, re-conjuring the fire along his swords as the creature lunged at them.

Slightly too slow to move Harry got impacted by the creature and forced up against the wall, their four blades pressing hard against each other, both forcing all their strength into the weapons.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Buffy dodging about trying to avoid its flailing tail.

With one unlucky move the Batros swung its tail straight down onto the blade of a dagger that Buffy had just drawn, severing it in two.

The creature screamed in pain giving Harry just enough of a distraction.

Releasing his grip on one of his swords he braced himself for the pain as his sword was shoved back towards him, slashing across his shoulder before his opponent's blade impaled his arm.

He cried out in pain but luckily he had moved his hand just in time before his muscles were skewered.

With a yell of pain and fury he launched a jet of flame from his hand, straight into the midsection of the Batros.

It screamed in pain as it was flung back across the room by the force of the flame.

Using his other hand he dropped his second sword and let rip with both hands, sending a constant stream of fire at the beast that was now flattened against the opposing wall, screaming in pain.

He kept the fire going for at least twenty seconds before he finally let his hands drop, the flame died, revealing the very charred remains of the beast stuck to the opposing wall.

"White meat or dark?" panted Buffy walking over and yanking the knife out of his shoulder "Though I think after that it's all going to be dark, nice trick."

"ARGH!!....Thanks." he nodded, drawing his wand and casting blood clotting charms over their wounds sealing most of the blood in.

"Let' get going." She decided collecting his swords and handing them back to him "That woman of yours is still missing."

Nodded exhaustedly he took the lead and headed out of the room.

________________________________________________________________________

_This was bad; this was very very bad_ thought Tara.

It had all been going rather well until about twenty seconds ago.

They had managed to take out half of the Valkyrie and a couple of the Fire Wolves until one of the Valkyrie's made the fatal mistake of throwing one of the spheres at her.

It had missed but the spray from the impact landed in two large clumps on her bare arms.

She had understandably screamed in pain as the lava burned her skin for the half a second that it was in contact with her before she shook and brushed it off, but that was enough.

Willow had heard the sound of her screaming and as anyone who knew them knew; there was one thing and only one thing that was guaranteed to set Willow off and that was her love for Tara.

The redhead screamed her eyes and hair turning black as she levitated herself up twenty feet above the ground.

"You shall PAY for that!!" she screamed, firing a stream of familiar crackling black magic towards an unfortunate group of Valkyrie near the remains of their catapult.

They screamed out in agony for several seconds as the stream of magic hit them before their bodies fell to the ground dead, whatever dark purpose the magic served having done its job.

Willow screamed again turning to the wolves. Conjuring several spheres of the magic she threw them at all those still standing, each wolf howled out as what looked like black electricity passed over them upon impact before they too dropped to the ground dead.

Turning towards one of the few remaining Valkyrie that was wrestling with a fully avian Colette she conjured another ball.

"Willow no!!" Hermione shouted as the crackling sphere was launched at the pair.

________________________________________________________________________

Hermione watched horrified as the sphere rapidly approached the struggling combatants.

Fortunately both seemed to notice at the same time and the Valkyrie was smart enough to let Colette launch a fireball back.

The spheres collided in mid air, the explosion blowing Colette and the Valkyrie off their feet.

"DIE!!" screamed Willow again, launching a bigger magic ball at them.

Again Colette threw fire back to destroy the magic ball, but this time the fireball simply blew apart on impact allowing the dark sphere to continue on.

"MOVE!!" Hermione shouted as the Valkyrie and the Veela threw themselves away from each other, though all too slowly in the case of the Valkyrie as he was hit by the magic and killed just like the wolves.

Willow's head spun around to face her.

"Don't interfere Witch." She ordered in a dark and very un-Willow like way before throwing a ball of magic towards her.

More out of shock at the change in Willow's voice than madness or slow reaction time Hermione failed to more.

Only when the sphere was just in front of her did she react.

Screaming she threw up her hands defensively and was astonished to see a white stream of magic target the sphere and cause it to explode.

Looking around for the source of the magic she saw Tara panting on the ground, having presumably just dropped there.

"Willow stop." Tara gasped as Hermione ran over to help her, but the raging witch ignored her, instead opting to send a stream of black magic towards them.

Conjuring a shield Hermione braced herself for the impact, but it never came, yet the sounds of battle continued.

Looking up she saw Adam standing in front of them, his staff held horizontally in his hands, projecting a shield in front of it. Willow could not be seen but they knew she was there as the stream of black magic was impacting against the shield, obscuring their vision.

"Adam." She smiled, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Get Colette and start putting the fire out, Tara will need help; projecting pure magic is very draining, I will take care of Willow....I would also recommend haste as I cannot hold this shield for long."

Nodding, Hermione helped Tara to her feet before gesturing for Colette to follow.

________________________________________________________________________

Adam sighed in relief as Hermione and the others disappeared around the side of the building, casting water charms at the side of the chateau.

Pulsing his magic, he threw his shield outwards, blasting the dark magic back, just long enough so that he could jump clear.

Once out of the line of fire he immediately floated upwards to the same level as Willow.

"Willow." He smiled.

"Adam." The eerie voice grinned back "I'm going to enjoy this."

She launched a sphere of dark magic at him which collided with a white magic sphere coming the other way, detonating in a large explosion between them.

"You will have to do better than that Dark One." He replied.

"Ok then." She nodded sarcastically "How's this?"

Streams of black magic flew at him; again impacting white magic coming in the other direction, anyone watching would have seen how the air around the combatants reflected the nature of the magic; Willow's side growing darker and colder while Adam's let out a gentle warmth.

There was a split second as the magic's connected and started to gather into a combined monochromatic sphere before a massive explosion emanated from it, blowing both the combatants backwards through the air.

Stabilising himself Adam flew around the cloud of smoke marking the detonation point and flew within ten meters of Willow.

A quick sidespin allowed him to dodge the three dark magic balls sent his way, allowing him to send a light sphere back which Willow casually detonated with another dark sphere.

________________________________________________________________________

Willow laughed at his plight, it was pathetic, the Great Guardian could not even take down a little witch.

"Your light magic's are no match for the powers of darkness." She laughed conjuring another black sphere in her hand "You cannot defeat me."

"Aren't they indeed," he replied stopping his motion and coming to a hover in front of her "Then I will use your own magic's against you."

Willow's eyes widened in shock as her opponent conjured his own dark sphere and threw it at her.

Launching her own just in time they impacted and detonated just in front of her causing her skin to get burned by the blast.

"Minor wounds only, easy to repair."

Though she never got the chance as what appeared to be a silvery/grey lightning leapt from Adam's fingers.

Rapidly raising a shield she started laughing again when she realised that she could not even feel any pressure on it.

"Is that the best you....you can....what?"

She gasped, she was losing power, she could not maintain the shield.

"What the?....What are you doing to me."

"It's called Anti-Magic Willow." He replied, now appearing to tower over her as she began to lose her ability to stay airborne "Shadow Anti-Magic to be precise, something far beyond your abilities. They are the 'Achilles Heel' of the dark magic's that are controlling you Willow and now they know not to challenge me again."

Willow's vision blacked out just as he finished, she remembered falling before strong arms caught her.

"You will be alright now Willow."

________________________________________________________________________

Around the other side of the building Tara, Colette and Hermione were busy firing water through every window, they had used so much water that some rooms should have been absolutely drenched but the fires in the centre and on top of the Chateau were out of reach.

When Adam landed beside them and lowered a redheaded Willow to the ground Tara immediately dropped down beside her.

"Is she...."

"She'll be fine, just a bit drained." He assured her "I've got to...."

He was interrupted by a crash and roar as a soon to be dead Batros demon was blasted out of one of the upstairs windows by a huge jet of flame.

"It looks like Harry is making his presence known." He commented before taking a running jump towards the window "Excuse me."

With a short burst of transformation and a couple of quick flaps he reverted to his normal form just as he landed inside the recently destroyed remains of the window, quickly bringing a dagger up to block the sword that was swung at him by Harry.

"Good reactions." He greeted before sheaving the dagger and jumping down from the sill "Have you found them yet?"

"No," Buffy replied "But they must be on this floor or the one above."

"Fleur's on this floor." Confirmed Harry taking off down the corridor.

"We'll take the top floor." Agreed Buffy veering off towards the stairs with Adam in hot pursuit.

________________________________________________________________________

Harry was getting desperate, he knew he was close but Fleur had been unresponsive to his attempts at mental communication and the smoke was now so thick that anyone standing in it would start to choke.

He literally explode his way into the room he knew she was in, having to blast the timber that had fallen down, blocking his way.

The room was a mess, half the ceiling had caved in, leaving a whole to the top floor, the furniture was in a similar state of destruction with many of the wooden items having been smashed.

"Mr Harry Potter Sir."

Spinning to his right he saw Fleur lying unconscious within a bubble of clear air being maintained by a House Elf, Fleur's forehead had a large gash over it.

"Is she alright?"

"She fell Mr Harry Potter Sir." Explained the Elf, lowering the bubble "Miss Fleur was finding Miss Gabby when floor collapsed Sir."

"Get out of the Chateau." He ordered, picking up his unconscious Mate "Try to put out some of the fires."

Harry heard the pop but did not turn to see whether the House Elf had gone as he moved over to the room's broken window and looked out.

He could see no one on this side of the Chateau.

Quickly stepping back and making sure his arm was wrapped around her, he did a very rapid transformation in his dragon form.

Swinging his tail at the window he knocked several square feet of brick out of the wall, allowing him to jump out of the newly enlarged gap.

He landed softly on three legs, ignoring the pain from when his leg had been impaled earlier, his remaining front paw held Fleur against him.

Transforming back he picked her up, carrying her by her back and knees and ran around the corner to where he could hear the faint sounds of spells being cast.

________________________________________________________________________

On the top floor Adam and Buffy were having to climb over the wreckage of chandeliers, assorted pieces of wooden furniture and many parts of the ceiling and walls that had collapsed.

Hearing a growl to their left followed by a high pitched scream, they altered their course down the relevant corridor.

"Was that Fleur's sister?" asked Buffy, slamming her troll hammer into a joist blocking their way, splintering it into many pieces as they blasted through.

"Highly probable," he replied somersaulting over a partially collapsed section of roof "It was coming from the direction of her room."

"I think I recognised that growl."

"So did I." he nodded "I'll deal with it, you get Gabrielle out."

"Got ya."

Exploding into the room, the door of which was in pieces on the floor, the pair were confronted by what they thought they would see.

A Batros demon pounding down on top of another House Elf shield containing a pair of House Elves and a terrified Gabrielle.

"Get her out!!" he shouted "I'll get Dimitri and Delphine."

The demon instantly turned at his shout. Its reaction was to swing its tail at him, this one with a very large morning star attached to it.

Conjuring a shield he let it heavily impact against it before swinging his staff around to face it.

A quick kick caught him in the ribs, its claws briefly impaling his side, providing just enough of a distraction for it to knock his staff out of his hands to clatter to the ground on the other side of the room.

Grunting he took a step back as the beast stood on its hind legs and bared its teeth.

________________________________________________________________________

Buffy, darting around the fight quickly picked up the trembling Gabrielle allowing the House Elves to 'pop' away, but because of the positions of the combatants she was unable to get back to the door as the first scuffle had moved the battle to block her path.

"Fine." Adam growled in a rare display of serious emotion which was something that Buffy had not seen before "Let's do this your way."

Buffy stood waiting while neither party moved for several seconds before she saw a dark pigment spread under Adam's skin and dark black and grey hairs erupted all over his body.

"What the!!" she exclaimed as his body began to expand, his muscles grew, his back hunched, his clothes absorbed into his expanding skin.

She watched in a slightly confused type of comprehension as his face became pointed like that of a wolf, as his arms and legs extended and his fingers extended into claws.

"Go." He growled in a deep voice as he stretched his limbs and bared his Werewolf teeth "Go!!"

Not needing to be told a third time she darted towards the door and legged it down the corridor.

She heard the snarls and the sounds of impacts as the two creatures collided with each other, biting and scratching at any exposed sections of skin.

She could still hear the sounds of the fight as she jumped out through a first floor window, carefully planning her landing so as not to hurt the young Veela in her arms.

________________________________________________________________________

With a resounding crack Adam released the demons broken neck, allowing it to slump to the floor as he reverted to his usual form.

"It's been a while since I have had to do that." He gasped, briefly examining the multiple cuts and gashes he was sporting after the fight before turning and heading back out of the door and down the corridor, summoning his staff back to him as he went.

"DIMITRI!!....DELPHINE!!" he shouted turning another corner and coming face to face with a large roof cave in.

Transforming into a bird he darted through the supports blocking his way before stopping in mid flight and landing awkwardly.

Transforming back he heaved a support beam aside and sighed sadly at the sight he saw.

________________________________________________________________________

Harry watched relieved as Fleur finally came around just as Buffy arrived with Gabrielle.

"What happened?" she gasped as her sister threw her arms around her.

"The Chateau was attacked and set on fire by the Valkyrie," he replied "You were knocked out by part of the ceiling collapsing."

She looked dazed for several seconds before her memory returned and her eyes flew open locking onto the burning form of the Chateau.

"My parents!!" she cried out, empting to get up with Gabrielle still wrapped tightly around her.

"Adam's getting...."

Buffy didn't get the chance to finish as the sound of creaking wood and cracking stone emanated from the Chateau, immediately followed by one of the towers collapsing as its exterior walls gave out, slowly wrenching itself away from the rest of the Chateau as it plummeted towards the ground.

Several square meters of the ground floor walls were pulled away from the Chateau with the tower, resulting in the upper floors above the missing wall sections collapsing down into the ground floor, an entire quarter of the Chateau was destroyed.

In the midst of the collapse Harry and the others caught sight of a dark figure jumping from the top floor just as it began to collapse, before landing smoothly atop the remains of the tower.

They saw Adam straighten himself up and look back at the Chateau before turning and walking sadly towards the group, passing the line of over three dozen House Elves led by Dobby that were busy trying to put out the fires, Harry realised then that the Portkey and Apparation wards would have no affect on their mode of travel allowing them to answer The Alliance distress call as soon as they were able.

Fleur struggled to her feet and she and Gabrielle ran towards him, Harry hot on their heels.

"Where are they?" his mate asked panicked "Where are my parents?"

As they came to a stop in front of Adam he slowly raised his head.

"A large part of the ceiling caved in on the main corridor of the top floor....your parents....were underneath it at the time." He answered solemnly as Hermione and the others caught up "I'm sorry Fleur....There was nothing I could do."

Harry was frozen.

It could not be....They couldn't be dead....Not the first adults to ever really trust him.

"LIAR!!" Fleur screamed, startling him out of his shocked state as she moved towards Adam and started hitting him while he just stood there "It's not true!!....It's NOT true!!....They can't be...."

Harry moved forward as she started to breakdown, pulling her into his embrace as she dropped to her knees.

"They can't be....They....can't be...." she sobbed into his shoulder as Gabrielle dropped down on his other side and hugged them as she started crying.

"Mother....Father...."

________________________________________________________________________

AUTHORS NOTE: I bet none of you thought I would do something like that to mark my reaching the one hundredth chapter.


	101. CH101 The Ghost Of Dangers Past

Chapter 101 – The Ghost Of Dangers Past 

The days after the tragedy at the Chateau were solemn at Hogwarts and not just for those who knew the Delacour's, almost the entire school was affected.

When the History Of Magical Creatures Professor, the Duelling Master, the Alternative Magic's Professor and all those around them were solemn, the school could not go unaffected.

And what made it worse was what they had discovered upon their return to the school after the attack; the Delacour's had not been the only target.

The Grangers, the Weasley's, the Lovegood's and the Longbottom's had all been hit again as well, and this time some of the attacks had been successful.

Luna's father had the sheer dumb luck of having the horn of a Erumpent hanging from his ceiling, he of course though it was from a Crumple-horned Snorkack, but luckily for him it was not and was therefore highly explosive.

When the Death Eaters had stormed his house they were unlucky enough to hit one of the chains holding it as he dashed up the stairs away from them, resulting in it swinging straight into them and detonating upon impact taking all five of them with it, leaving little more than their boots, masks and smoking cloaks.

The attack on Neville's house was futile as no one was there; apparently his grandmother had been taken to St. Mungo's a few hours before the attack and Neville was there when she peacefully died of natural causes.

The attack on Hermione's house lasted only a few seconds, it seems that the attackers had taken advice from James and instead of storming the house like last time and suffering heavy losses, this time they chose to launch five pounds of C4 through the living room window where both of the residents were sitting, killing them instantly and obliterating the house, as the wards around the property could not defend them against inanimate objects.

Lastly, the attack against the Weasley's was much like the standard Death Eater attack with James along for the ride to get them past the wards. Apparently after the attack on his house, Luna's father (who lived nearby) had seen the flashes of magic down by The Burrow, and had Apparated to the location and had arrived just before the Order, witnessing both Mr. and Mrs. Weasley succumb under a hail of killing curses. They had beaten them back but by then it was all too late.

This resulted in many grieving people at Hogwarts, all the family members were shocked and saddened by the deaths and only Neville seemed unchanged, stating that 'it was her time' and that 'she had lived a long and full life'.

The others were hit hard by the news. Hermione had spent many hours crying against Ron while he did his best to remain strong, Fleur had been walking around as if she were not there, her eyes seemed completely empty.

Harry and Colette were slightly more aware of what was going on around them but still walked around and did everything they could to take their minds of it, throwing themselves into their work and teaching classes as if it were a pre-recorded program that was being played out. They were so focused on their tasks that Harry, during a duelling demonstration, received a nasty gash across his chest and did not seem to even notice it until Fleur pointed it out to him when he returned to their room several hours later.

The funeral services had been hard on everyone, they were held together up in the Carpathian Mountains near the Veela Colony in a secluded valley where the Veela Cemetery was located. The Weasley's, Granger's and Mrs. Longbottom were then transferred back to Britain to be buried in family plots.

The ceremony itself was similar to that of Wizards and Muggle's with the exception of what was known as The Salute of Fire, whereby all those able to conjure fire either by wand or Elemental means, together as one launched said flames into the sky directly above the grave as the coffin is lowered into the ground below, creating a large ball of fire as all the flames combine above the departed.

The reception was held at the rapidly rebuilt Chateau (the Delacour's had had full Goblin insurance over the Chateau which meant that any damage no matter how severe would be repaired within days of the event that caused it), it was exactly as it was before except for the absence of any personal items in the rooms that were destroyed as the Goblins could not repair what was not covered by the policy; this left Dimitri and Delphine's room utterly devoid of personality....as if they had never been.

This fact did little to help the grieving Fleur, Harry and Gabrielle, as many people from many different countries offered them their condolences to them and the others in mourning.

After the event Madam Maxime and Fleur both agreed that for the time being Gabrielle should not stay in a place that reminded her of her parents, so for the moment she would stay with her sister, resulting in Gabrielle moving into the room next to Harry's and Fleur's at Hogwarts. This resulted in a slight lift in people's spirits as she explored the school, having not had much of a chance to do so during her last visit, but the slightly relaxed state she brought to everyone around her did not last long.

________________________________________________________________________

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date:20__th __October 2001 AD_

_Country:Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts - Empty Classroom_

_Time:Late Afternoon_

On the Saturday following the events at the Chateau Harry was sitting alone in one of the empty classrooms.

He had spent quite a lot of time recently just sitting and thinking, and this classroom, with windowsills big enough for a grown man to sit comfortably on was his preferred place to do so.

For once he did not have Gabrielle following after him, she had started spending more and more time around Harry and his friends (she had discovered it was more fun exploring a castle when you had someone with you who actually knew the way) though notably not Adam who she almost ran from whenever they met. Apparently she had seen him transform into a Werewolf during the attack against the Chateau (an ability that he had avoided explaining, though one that wasn't that impressive when you consider the fact that Barty Crouch Junior had turned Malfoy into a Ferret and that Viktor had done a partial shark transformation during the tournament) and she had been terrified of him ever since.

"May I join you Harry?"

By force of habit he spun around, bringing his wand to bear upon Ginny who thanks to similar training from Harry and the other Defence Professors did not even flinch at the move.

"I don't want to disturb you if you want to be alone."

Returning his wand to its holster he turned back to the window, a large number of those at the school were very worried about Ginny as she had shown little to no reaction regarding the death of her parents. The only notable difference in her that people had seen was that for no apparent reason she was spending less and less time with Draco. She almost seemed bored with him despite his best efforts to seem anything of the sort, and instead of being there to comfort her in her grief she had in fact told him to leave her alone.

"No....No, I think I could use the company, thanks."

He heard her cross the room then quickly jump up onto the windowsill, her legs dangling over the side, her height meant she could not just sit straight down on the high sill like he could.

Turning around she moved next to him, hanging her jean clad legs out of the window.

"How are you feeling? She asked.

"Thoughtful." He replied.

"Thoughtful about what?"

"About where Voldemort will strike next."

"Don't think about it." She replied, shuffling closer to him. "If it happens it happens, there are always people that won't make it."

"There shouldn't have to be people who won't make it. There should not have to be any fighting at all, there should not even be a Voldemort anymore."

"Forget about it, forget about the war and forget about the Dark Lord." She sighed, leaning her head against him and putting her arm around his waist. "That's not important now, just be here....with me."

Realizing the position they were in, Harry moved to pull away before a familiar feeling began to cloud his mind as her hand moved up to play with his hair.

________________________________________________________________________

"I don't think I can take much more." Groaned Buffy as she, Anne and Hermione walked through the Hogwarts corridors. "I mean, yes, I know that a lot of good people have just died and that's terrible but this castle is turning into such a gloomy place that I think I almost preferred my coffin."

"It was worse after Cedric Diggory died during the Triwizard Tournament," Hermione explained, she was doing all she could to distract herself from thinking about her parents and luckily that was one thing that Buffy was very good at doing. "We had two extra years from two different schools grieving as well, not to mention the press, Ministry Officials, Foreign Dignitaries and parents who were here too."

"Point taken," Buffy nodded, "Where did that hinky map thing say he was again?"

"The third classroom, down this next corridor."

"Were did that thing come from anyway?" asked Anne from Hermione's other side. She and her 'clone' had been getting on better since their little duel with Harry and Fleur, as it had managed to prove to both of them that they were different and that they were not trying to compete for the name of Buffy and the title of Oldest Slayer. Anne, having settled in nicely with her new name, and Buffy, having become used to the idea that while she was no longer the oldest she was technically the 'active' Slayer, as Anne could not fill the role anymore and Faith was incarcerated.

"Harry's father, godfather, Remus and someone who now works for Voldemort made it," She explained. "They were known as the Marauders and were chronic pranksters. Ron's brothers found it in Filch's Office and later gave it to Harry."

"Why are we doing this again, people like to be alone sometimes after a death."

"Harry is not 'most people'," replied Hermione. "He has a knack of blaming himself for things that aren't his fault, so leaving him alone right now would not be a good idea."

"From what I have heard from Fleur about the summer he is likely to try to cut himself off from us as well." Anne agreed. "It is better if he is not left alone."

As they turned into the room in question they were stopped dead by what they saw.

Harry was lying on the windowsill, his eyes were glazed over and his head was rolling back against the stone work as if he were drugged, and crawling all over him looking rather wild was Ginny.

"Ginny!!" exclaimed Hermione. "What on earth are you doing!!"

"Go away." She growled, not looking away from her prey, her voice several octaves lower than it should have been.

"Ginny!!"

"Leave Mudblood!!" she shouted.

________________________________________________________________________

The room became silent instantly as the words hit everyone ears just at the moment that Fleur staggered through the doorway, looking decidedly unstable.

"Leave....my....mate....alone." growled the irate Veela, conjuring a weak fireball.

"Make me Half-Breed." Returned the redhead, leaping from the sill to stand in front of Harry.

With a roar of fury the fireball in Fleur's hands expanded to twice its normal size just as she launched it at her opponent.

During the seconds it had taken the exchange to take place; Anne had spotted the glowing eyes of the necklace Harry was wearing. Casting a summoning charm, she was just in time as the fireball and necklace, which broke away from Harry's neck, sailed past each other.

The necklace landed in Anne's hand just as the fireball collided with Ginny's half complete shield, sending her flying backwards.

The still active necklace switched its target to Anne causing her to drop to the floor as it released its hold on Harry just in time for his instincts to kick in as Ginny sailed past him and out of the window.

One rapid twist and grab later saw Harry with one hand holding onto Ginny's wrist, while his body hung out of the window, save for his other hand which was holding onto the stone work around the window.

Diving for the sill Buffy grabbed his wrist just as he lost his grip.

"ARGH!!" she gasped as she was half pulled out the window. "You two need to lose some weight."

Hermione, finally coming back to herself after hearing one of her closest friends insult her, shook her head clear and cast a levitation charm on Harry pulling both him and the now unconscious Ginny inside.

As they touched the ground Harry ran straight to embrace his mate while Hermione conjured sheets of fabric to restrain Ginny, binding her entirely from neck to foot.

"That should hold her." She sighed, turning from her friend to the very lucid Anne lying on the floor. Levitating the still glowing necklace out of her hand Anne immediately began to return to normal shaking her head clear and cautiously taking to her feet.

"God, what was that?"

"I don't know," Hermione replied. "But this necklace that Ginny gave to Harry is responsible."

As if realizing that it had failed in its task, the eyes of the necklace turned black and it split down the middle with a loud crack of magic, the two halves fell to the floor, powerless.

"Well, I don't think we are going to be able to find out anything from that now," sighed Buffy before turning to look at Ginny. "I think she was possessed."

"I think you're right," nodded Anne. "But possessed by what?"

Hermione looked over and met Harry's gaze.

"I have a bad feeling we know exactly what is possessing her," he replied. "Or more accurately, who."

"Let get her to the hospital wing and let the headmaster know, we...."

She was cut off as Colette ran past the doorway, before skidding to a stop as she saw them and doubled back.

"Harry, Fleur! Come quickly!!"

"What is it?"

"It's the Ministry," she panted. "They're trying to take Gabrielle away!!"


	102. CH102 Run Veela, Run Veela, Run Run

Chapter 102 – Run Veela, Run Veela, Run Run Run

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date:20__th __October 2001 AD_

_Country:Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts - Entrance Hall_

_Time:Early Evening_

"It is no good arguing Dumbledore, the law is the law."

"Minister, are you seriously suggesting taking a child away from her only living relative immediately after the death of her parents?" replied the Headmaster as he gestured to Gabrielle, who was struggling in the grasp of two of the four Aurors accompanying Fudge.

"The law demands that I do." Fudge replied defiantly. "Her sister does not have the legal right to take custody of her; therefore she must leave with us now so that she can be taken care of."

"Then I claim custody of her." replied the Headmaster as he and Professors McGonagall and Snape followed after them. "She is a child of schooling age and this is a school of which I am Headmaster, therefore I can claim guardianship."

"Only if she was born within the United Kingdom or was a British Citizen, as she is neither, you cannot claim guardianship."

"Been reading up on the law have we Minister?" Snape sneered, more out of dislike for the Minister than the desire to keep the child at the school.

"Don't patronize me Professor Snape; you and the rest of the residents of Hogwarts have no legal rights to keep her here."

"Get your hands off my sister!!" shouted Fleur as she and the others ran around the corner. Anne, Fleur and Colette immediately drew wands and pointed them at the Aurors holding Gabrielle; Buffy had remained behind to guard Ginny.

"Fleur!! Harry!!" shouted Gabrielle, still struggling to get free.

"Pointing your wands at the Minster of Magic is considered treason." Countered Fudge.

"True, Minister," replied Harry, who had not drawn his wand and was instead holding a knife that he had withdrawn from his boot. "And in case you hadn't noticed, which you probably haven't, the blade in my hand is not a wand and those pointing wands are pointing them at your bodyguards, but even if they were pointing them at you it would not matter as none of them are British, so they cannot commit treason."

"Irrelevant." came the reply. "There is still nothing you or they can do to prevent me from taking her, without giving me cause to arrest you."

"True." interrupted Adam's voice as he made his way towards them from the Main Doors. "There is nothing they can do to stop you."

"Ha." Barked Fudge triumphantly.

"But I can."

In a quick movement, before Fudge had even had time to process the statement, he jumped at the two Aurors holding Gabrielle; with a graceful double flying kick he knocked both of the Aurors to the ground, each now sporting a broken nose.

"Run Gabrielle." He shouted as he landed "Fleur, Colette, Anne, go with her, run!!"

The trio did not wait for the others to react. Turning on their heels, the trio and Gabrielle ran down the nearest corridor and round the corner.

"Stop!!" bellowed Fudge before turning to two of the Aurors. "Get her back!"

As the Aurors took off after the girls, Fudge and the two Aurors with bloodied noses turned on Adam.

"Arrest him on the charge of assault and battery against officers of the law. Don't try to resist, things will only get worse for you if you do."

"Why would I try to resist," Adam replied calmly, raising his hands in front of him. "You can arrest me."

One of the Aurors fired a long coil of rope at his hands, only for it to pass straight through him and wrap around his colleague on Adam's other side, binding him so tightly that he wobbled for a second and promptly fell to the ground.

"If you can arrest me." Adam added with a smile.

________________________________________________________________________

"Is this going to work?" asked Anne in a whisper as they hid in an old classroom.

"There's no reason why it shouldn't." replied Fleur, as she ran her fingers through Gabrielle's hair, pulling out several loose ones.

"Do you have enough?" asked Colette.

"Just." She nodded, withdrawing three vials from her robes. "Thank goodness for Tonks fetishes, these are my last three doses."

After handing two of the vials and some of the hairs to the other adults, she uncorked her own.

"It does not taste very nice." she conceded, adding her hairs and reluctantly downing her vial.

"Down the hatch!" grimaced Colette as she followed suit, closely followed by Anne.

There were several seconds of silence before their faces started showing their distaste for the potion.

"God, you weren't kidding!" Gasped Anne. "That tastes terrible."

"It's working," grinned Gabrielle as the others began to get smaller, the potion's affects relieving some of her fear at being caught by the Aurors. "It's working!"

"Is anyone else getting a shrinking feeling?" quipped Colette.

"No, but I feel like someone's cutting me down to size." Anne replied sarcastically.

As they finished transforming, Colette and Fleur began casting charms on their now very large clothes, changing them to match Gabrielle's.

"Quick, they went this way." echoed a voice from the doorway.

"Hurry." Hissed Anne.

"We're ready," replied Colette, pointing her wand up at the door. "Get ready to run."

________________________________________________________________________

"I hope the Headmaster knows what he's doing." breathed Harry.

"He and Adam will keep them occupied Potter." replied McGonagall as they ran down the corridor. "We just need to get to France and back in time; I have enough friends in the French Ministry to ensure we can get our problem resolved very rapidly."

"How is it that Fudge can take Gabrielle away from Fleur?" he asked, as they turned passed a group of students.

"As I am sure you are aware Potter, the laws of the Wizarding World are not very fair to anyone who is not a Pure-Blood. France is more tolerant in some respects, as they have a higher percentage of Goblins, Veela and human hybrids, but unfortunately they are not more tolerant in all.

"I don't follow."

"In both England and France the law prohibits part humans from taking legal guardianship of minors who are not their offspring. Before you arrived the Headmaster tried to claim guardianship as Gabrielle was of schooling age and he as a Professor can claim custody under such circumstances, but as she is not a Citizen of this country and as she was not born here, his claim was invalid."

"I suppose Madam Maxime, due to her Giant parentage, would also be out of the question?"

"Correct, but luckily there is one other who can claim guardianship."

"Who?"

________________________________________________________________________

"I'll get you, you little pipsqueak!!" Shouted the now irate Auror that was following after Anne as she turned around the next corner, having gained a bit of a lead on him, though having even smaller legs than usual did not help.

As she rounded the corner, she stopped herself only just in time before she ran into Hermione and Ron.

"Gabrielle! What's....?"

"No time, they're after me." she gasped, dodging around them before taking off down the corridor.

"Come back here you little pest!!"

As she continued on down the corridor, she thought she caught Hermione say something along the lines of:

"Ron, play along."

"WhaMMM."

As she reached the next corner she paused to look back, just in time to see Hermione pressing Ron against the wall with her lips and her leg bent out at the knee.

A spilt second later, the Auror came hurtling around the corner and tripped straight over Hermione's leg, sending him flying into the stone floor with a loud whack and a grunt of pain.

"Oh Merlin, are you alright?" Hermione exclaimed, pulling away from Ron and dropping down beside the man, obviously trying to ignore the pain in her leg from having a heavily built man tripping over it.

Anne always knew that one was clever; she'd have to owe her one later. Taking off again, she laughed to herself as she got snippets of the conversation.

"I think you've sprained it, you'd better keep your weight off it until we can get you to Madam Pomfrey."

________________________________________________________________________

Back in the Entrance Hall, Fudge was fuming.

"Stop resisting!!" he bellowed as yet another attempt to bind, tackle, arrest or restrain Adam had failed.

"How am I resisting? I am standing right in front of you, unarmed with my hands together ready for you to arrest me."

"Minister!!" came a shout from the stairs that descended to the dungeons. "I've got her!"

"Good work," grinned Fudge, his mood instantly improving as he turned to the Headmaster. "Well Dumbledore, your attempt to hide the girl has failed, we've got her and we are taking her with us."

"I haven't tried to hide her from you Minister," Dumbledore replied calmly. "I haven't so much as lifted a finger in your direction. Professor Berio-Megiltura has had no prompting from me."

"Regardless, she's ours and if this Professor of yours tries to interfere again I will have him imprisoned in Azkaban."

"Only if you can arrest him first." replied Snape, his usual deep voice containing the tiniest hint of the amusement the situation was causing.

"I've warned you once Professor Snape, I won't war...."

He never got the chance to finish as the other Auror who had gone out after Gabrielle appeared at the end of one of the corridors, holding another struggling Gabrielle.

"What in Merlin's name!!" he exclaimed, his eyes darting between the Gabrielle at the end of the passage and the Gabrielle beside him. "Dumbledore, what are you up to?"

"I am not up to anything Minister, how could I have been? I have been in your presence ever since the girl escaped."

Fudge glared at the Headmaster's twinkling eyes for a moment.

"Take them both." He snapped. "We will work out which one is the girl later."

"Oh no you won't Minister," McGonagall announced calmly, descending the stairs with Harry both slightly out of breath "You have no legal right to take her away from her guardian."

"Her sister has no legal right to guardianship in England OR in France."

"No she hasn't Minister," agreed McGonagall. "But her Mate does."

"Mate? Mate? What mate?" he demanded.

"This Mate." grinned Harry, descending the last few steps and walking over to Fudge holding a scroll in his hand "This scroll is an Emergency Authorization Document from the French Ministry entitling me, Daniel Radcliffe, aka Harry Potter, to the legal guardianship of one Gabrielle Delacour."

Fudge snatched the scroll from him and furiously read it.

"You're British. The French Ministry cannot authorize the Guardianship of one of its citizens to a British citizen without Ministry approval or the signatures of at least seven members of the Wizengamot, or six including the signature of the Chief Warlock."

"Daniel Radcliffe is a French citizen and as such needs no such authorization," Harry replied calmly. "But we predicted your opposition so we also got this."

He withdrew another scroll.

"Another EAD appointing British Citizen Harry James Potter as Gabrielle Delacour's second guardian after Daniel Radcliffe, and at the bottom you will see the signatures of Wizengamot representatives for the Houses of Potter, Black, Gryffindor, Slytherin and McGonagall."

"That's only five." grinned Fudge.

Not waiting for an invitation, the Headmaster strode over to them and, conjuring a quill out of the air immediately signed the document which Harry held out for him.

"Six, including the Chief Warlock." Harry countered, before turning to the Aurors. "Under the authorization of this legal document and my position in the Wizengamot I order you to release those girls."

The Aurors slowly released the two Gabrielles who immediately ran and hid behind Harry.

Harry and Fudge continued staring at each other for a few more seconds before Fudge spun around and led the Aurors out of the castle.

When they reached the bottom of the steps, Harry sighed in relief before turning to the two Gabrielles.

"Are you two alright?"

"Yeah."

"Fine, thanks Harry."

"Would I be correct in guessing you are Anne and Colette?"

"Yep."

"Right, I guess the others will show up soon," he nodded, before turning to Adam and Dumbledore. "We have a problem."

"I presume you mean other than the one we just resolved." replied the Headmaster.

"Yes and this one is much worse," he answered. "Ginny is being possessed by Tom Riddle."


	103. CH103 Cast Out

Chapter 103 – Cast Out

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date:24__th __October 2001 AD_

_Country:Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts - Infirmary_

_Time:Early Morning_

Hermione was nervous; she rarely was so her nervousness made it evident that the situation was very dangerous indeed. The heated debate about how to proceed regarding Ginny had been very long and drawn out. Everyone knew that an exorcism was needed, but who should perform it, which of the several different known exorcism techniques should be used and who should be present were the major points of contention. Snape, Buffy, Anne and Harry had been most vocal about this and they only managed to reach a solution when Dumbledore intervened.

Eventually it was decided that three exorcisms techniques should be combined; Giles and Dumbledore would conduct a joint exorcism, containing elements or phrases from both of their know techniques with some choice words, actions and items contributed by Adam, the theory being that with the combination of three different techniques it would make it that much harder for the possession to hold.

It was not certain yet that Riddle was the presence residing within Ginny but it was a safe bet with all those familiar with her first year at Hogwarts.

Since the event where the possession was first realized Ginny had been completely unresponsive; they knew she was alive but she had not so much as raised her head from the bed that she had been strapped to since the uncovering of the deception.

At this moment though, she was strapped to a trolley that had been tilted so that she was leaning back slightly to prevent her from hanging forward by the restraints around her wrists and ankles.

The trolley was in the centre of a large circle with lots of small religious markings filling the spaces around the large symbol of the Ankh, which reached from one side of the circle to the other. The circle was large enough to contain the trolley and quite a few people; the people in question were still a matter of contention amongst the group but the number and selection had finally been resolved.

Hermione was going to be there as was Harry, Spike, Ron, Draco, McGonagall, Flitwick, Fleur, Neville, Anne, Luna and Snape. They had been chosen to be a part of the ring of people sitting around the edge of the circle, most volunteered though some, (ie. Snape) were only there to act as boosts in the magical shield, a majority of the others being younger than twenty it was thought best to have a few more experienced magic users within encase things went wrong.

Around them, Willow, Tara and Adam would be holding a powerful shield in place to prevent anything getting out in case something managed to bypass the inner ring.

Around that were the rest of the Weasley clan as well as most of the DA (who were insistent about attending), many of the Professors including Tonks, Colette and Remus, and lastly the rest of the Scoobies.

And at the very centre of it all were Dumbledore and Giles both wearing robes covered in religious symbols, Ginny strapped to her trolley and a small wooden table containing various magical objects including a large square box to capture the spirit of whatever came out of Ginny.

"If everybody would please get into position we will begin." announced Dumbledore. "Those of you in the inner ring please sit and hold hands."

Hermione, who along with Harry, Ron and Draco had been standing beside Ginny reluctantly moved and sat down in their designated order. Most willingly took the hands of those next to them, though some like Draco and Ron, and Harry, Snape and Luna were more reluctant, the former because of their general dislike for each other and the latter because Snape could not seem to imagine how he had got put in this position where he had to hold hands with Potter and Lovegood in the first place.

"Remember as soon as the ritual begins and you start chanting you will not be able to release hold of each other and above that you MUST keep chanting to keep the inner barrier in place, it is more powerful than the outer barrier but can be more easily disrupted."

"Willow, Tara, Adam," began Giles. "Please raise your shield, inner circle begin the chant."

As the inner ring began to chant the words they had learned, a shield began to develop around them, originating from the areas immediately behind each speaker and spreading as they continued to chant to form one large shield which reached up and touched the ceiling.

At the same time as this was happening Hermione heard Adam, Willow and Tara cast their spells.

"Both shields are in place." Adam announced from behind her.

With a nod to each other Dumbledore and Giles each picked up one of the gold Ankh signs laying on the table and held them up in front of Ginny.

There were many gasps as Ginny's head flew back hard against the trolley in an attempt to get away from the religious symbols, letting out a deep demonic gasp as she did so.

The inner shield flickered as Hermione and several other people unconsciously stopped speaking at Ginny's reaction.

"Keep chanting." ordered Adam, as those that had stopped hurriedly started again; the gaps in the inner shield closing as they did so.

"Everto," began Dumbledore. "Licentia somes nostri carus sanctimonialis."

"Malum unus," continued Giles. "Creatura of obscurum , licentia is vas , solvo is ut suus verus erus , licentia is vel exsisto iacio sicco."

As they began the creature inside Ginny got more and more aggravated, struggling against the restraints, black streaks spreading across her skin and making her eyes turn black.

Most of the assembled group were in shock at what they were seeing; only the Scoobies having ever done something like this before.

"Merlin!!." Hermione heard Colette gasp from outside the shields as Ginny's hair began to bleed black. "Is that supposed to happen?"

"It's fighting." Spike explained from somewhere out of Hermione's sight range. "It doesn't want to leave so it's entrenching itself as deep as it can go, even Ripper and the Wizard of Oz over there may have trouble with this one."

While this was going on the creature continued to struggle, the restraints on the trolley straining under its strength.

Giles and Dumbledore were getting louder in response, the sweat on their brows showing the effort and strain the magic was having on them. Now speaking in unison, they pressed the Ankh's onto her neck and shoulders eliciting a high pitched scream from the creature inside Ginny as the flesh under the marks began to smoke.

Hermione definitely heard the sound of some of Ginny's brothers crying as their sister screamed out but before she could think more about this, things started to go wrong.

The restraint holding Ginny's left arm snapped, she immediately lunged for Giles, her hand which now had turned completely black and had sharp pointed nails on each finger wrapped around his neck, breaking the skin where the nails squeezed.

"Giles!!" shouted all three of the Summers women, including Anne, causing the inner shield to dissipate around her.

Ginny's eyes snapped to her as the shield fell on her location.

Grinning evilly she threw the gasping Giles at Anne and those around her.

He landed hard colliding with Anne, Neville and Luna, knocking all three onto their backs, the magic ensuring though that they did not lose contact with each other, forcing them to stay where they were as Giles attempted to climb off them.

As the gap expanded where Luna and Neville's chants had been stopped the gap expanded further despite Snape and Fleur intensifying their own mantras.

Laughing at the group the creature swung Ginny's hand towards Dumbledore and let a burst of flame.

Raising his hand the Headmaster raised a partial shield before most of the flames hit, knocking him down immediately in front of Hermione, he was essentially unhurt but definitely dazed.

Before Dumbledore could regain his feet the creature dropped Ginny's hand to her side before her body started to strain and tense.

By this time Giles had regained his feet and moved to bring his Ankh down on Ginny's face.

As he approached a translucent arm rose out of Ginny's arm and knocked the arm aside, the black stain and extended nails vanishing from Ginny's real as the translucent version separated from her own.

Giles paused for a moment in shock giving the second arm that appeared enough time to knock him out.

With a twisted laugh a complete body pulled itself out of Ginny revealing the twisted and distorted face of Tom Riddle, his skin blackened, his nails and face more pointed, and his eyes pools of black.

"Hello everyone," it grinned. "Guess who's back."

________________________________________________________________________

As the younger form of his enemy pulled itself out Ginny's body Harry strained to get up but no matter what he tried he could not release Snape's or Spike's hands.

"Hello Harry," it smiled, revealing sharp pointed fangs behind its lips "It's been too long, too many years since we have seen each other, but unlike you I am not the same person I was before; my older self's friend James saw to that."

He paused briefly, raising his clawed hand to block the curse that the recovered Dumbledore managed to throw at him.

His shield barely flicked as the curse hit it.

"That's weak old man." He grinned before black electricity leapt from his hand.

Dumbledore hastily raised a shield but could do nothing else as Riddle continued the assault while casually turning back to Harry.

"As I was saying, oh yes, James saw to that. You see Harry when you thought you had defeated me by destroying the diary you had failed to remember that I had been possessing Ginny for months, making her write those words and all the other little things that went on. Part of me survived in her, buried deep in her psyche. It took me years to regain enough strength to be able to influence her, but this time inside her own mind rather from the pages of a book. I used her fondness of you to great effect, it was easy to make her buy that pretty necklace she gave you, tricking her into thinking that it was supposed to draw out your true feelings for her, when in reality it was simply a love, lust and mind clouding charm making you powerless whenever you got too close to the person who gave it to you."

"You used her." Harry growled, he was dimly aware of the shouting of people outside of the shields but was deaf to whatever they were saying.

"Yes, I did," Riddle smiled. "And although I could not use her to kill you the way I wanted, I can still kill you now."

"No you won't!" shouted Hermione from her point in the circle. "We won't let you!"

Riddle let out an evil laugh as he swung his head towards her.

"Do you really think you can stop me little girl? You tried to stop me taking full control of little Ginevra but I still found a way."

Hermione's expression turned to one of confusion.

"Oh, I forgot. You don't know about that; well....let me make it clear for you."

He paused briefly to catch Dumbledore's wandlessly thrown curse before sending it back at him, sending him flying into the surrounding shield to fall on top of Anne and Neville.

"Oh, for God's sake!" She exclaimed from underneath the mass of robes. "Can't you throw people in another direction?"

"Remain silent Slayer," hissed Riddle. "I will get to you in a minute."

Turning back to Hermione he continued.

"As I was saying, you were rather affective at trying to prevent my power boost. That snake that would not leave her alone during the attack on Hogsmeade, its venom was filled with magic special tuned to me, if she had been bitten the power would have come straight to me and I could have taken control of her then if I had so wished, but as it was it had to bite you and it did nothing more than poison you. As such James and Trixie had to take Ginevra with them and apply the spell manually, programming it to give me the power boost a few days after we returned, I was supposed to kill Harry and make you all think Ginny had done it before making my escape and joining my older self, that is obviously out of the question, but you cannot stop me killing Harry now."

"Who says I need them to stop you."

Riddle turned to Harry and grinned.

"Why do you need them to stop you?" asked Riddle rhetorically "Because you and the rest of these fools are bound together, none of you can reach your wands, my too evictors over there are unconscious, your Wiccan friends and the Guardian have to hold up that shield to prevent me from escaping and those outside of both shields can do absolutely nothing, so when you ask me why you need them to help you I thought it would be obvious."

"The one thing you have failed to realise Tom," Harry grinned. "Is that I don't need my hands to defend me."

The flash of concern that crossed Riddle's only just beat the flame that erupted from Harry's mouth.

Being thrown backwards he collided hard with the inner shield above the heads of Anne, Luna and Neville, fluctuating as he did so.

Recovering from the attack Riddle raised a shield as the next inferno rushed at him, this time impacting harmlessly against his shield, but Riddle barely noticed, he was much more interested in the fluctuating shield behind him.

As soon as they saw what he was doing, everyone but Harry (who continued his attack) began chanting harder, particularly the three at his point of contact who were still struggling under the weight of Dumbledore.

Firing a curse at the shield he watched it harmlessly dissipate upon impact.

"Hmm, looks like I need a bit more power, any volunteers?" Glancing around for a second his eyes settled on the pinned down form of Anne "Ahh, thank you Slayer, so nice of you to offer."

With that he dropped down beside her and placed his hand firmly on her head.

Instantly she started to convulse as black electricity seemed to pass from Riddle's arm and down over her skin.

"Anne!!" cried Xander from somewhere outside of the shields.

The black electricity seemed to flow into her then reverse course and begin pulsing back up Riddle's arm and into him, as the magic flowed back into Riddle's the hair on Anne's head began to fluctuate, changing colours like Willow's did when she turned dark except Anne's hair was pulsing in all directions and couldn't seem to make up its mind what colour it wanted to become.

Blond, light brown, red, blonde, dark brown, black, red, blonde.

The fluctuations got faster and faster as Riddle siphoned off her magic.

The grin on Riddle's face only stopped when Neville gave Anne's arm a hard yank and managed to rip her head free of Riddle's clutches.

Her eyes rolled in her sockets as she was released before she collapsed backwards onto the floor.

"Lucky for you Longbottom, I already have all the power I need."

Conjuring two spheres of crackling energy in his palms he dropped them on top of Luna and Neville, both of whom convulsed briefly before passing out, completely dropping the inner shield at their location.

"One down." He grinned, stepping over the trio, Dumbledore still lying on top of them.

________________________________________________________________________

"This isn't going well is it?" asked Xander.

"You think?" replied Dawn.

"Isn't someone going to do something?" asked Ron.

"We're open to suggestions Ron." Replied Tonks "But that second shield won't let anything in or out and they can't lower it without letting that thing out."

"And those inside the ring are either unconscious or stuck together." Added Colette. "There's nothing we can do."

"Whose dumb idea was this?"

________________________________________________________________________

Tara was getting worried, it was only their shield keeping the evil spirit contained now, and those still conscious members of the inner ring could not raise a complete shield with so many gaps.

The Riddle creature moved around inside the ring to stand in front of her.

"You seem to be the weak link in this little trio, so much power but no idea how to use it. Right now you are all that stands between me and freedom. Let's see what we can do about that."

Thrusting both his hands forward they made contact with the shield exactly where her hands were on the opposing side.

She immediately began feeling the effects of his contact, his resistance to the shield, trying to cancel it out and disrupt her concentration.

"You can't beat me little girl, your Wiccan magic's can't defeat my dark sorcery."

Small gaps started to appear in the shield around her hands as Riddle continued to force his power against hers, the shield sparking in several places around them as sections of its surface flicked into and out of existence.

A gap appeared between the pairs of hands, around them the shield continued to flicker but between them the hole expanded.

"Not long now little girl." grinned the creature.

As the gap reached twenty centimetres wide, he thrust his hand through grabbing her wrist.

"Got you." He grinned as she felt waves of exhaustion begin to pass through her as he siphoned away her energy.

"More power morARGH!!"

He recoiled as a well aimed spell from Colette founds its mark and left a large gash on his wrist, a fowl smelling black liquid spraying out of it as he recoiled back through the shield.

Tara staggered backwards as she was released, her area of the shield falling as she was unable to maintain it, Willow and Adam began moving around to stand opposite each other so as to make the shield as complete as possible.

"Quickly, get inside!!" Tara heard Buffy shout as she and Colette dived through the rapidly shrinking hole in the shield.

Shaking herself off , Tara was just fast enough to roll through the gap before it sealed behind her, Ron and several others bouncing off it as they tried to get in to help.

Rolling over she caught sight of Buffy engaged in hand to hand combat with the Riddle thing while Colette went about reviving Dumbledore and Giles.

Taking her chance she ran over and checked on Ginny.

Running her hands over her body she was unable to detect any negative effects from the possession, her skin was now back to normal and she appeared to simply be unconscious.

Or at least that's what she thought until she passed her hand a few centimetres over her chest, a massive pain exploded from her hand as she did so.

Gasping back the pain vanished immediately.

Taking the opportunity while Buffy and now Colette kept Riddle busy, she cast another spell.

"Reveal."

As soon as the words left her a strand of white light appeared in the air connecting Ginny to the fighting Riddle, she must have passed her hand through part of the beam.

"He's still drawing power from her." She gasped before turning and bracing herself just in time as a feathered Colette fell into her.

"He is really strong!!" she exclaimed before jumping back into the fray, several broken feathers dislodging from her wings as she did so.

With a well aimed diving tackle she managed to knock the Riddle creature to the floor and pin his left arm down.

Not to be outdone Buffy dropped down at their side and grabbed his other arm.

"Exorcise him for god sake!!" She shouted at Giles and Dumbledore who having recovered themselves had continued chanting, moving towards the struggling trio they pressed their Ankhs into Riddle's flesh.

Coming around beside them Tara used her magic to pin his legs, but even with all three of them holding him he was still incredibly strong and hard to hold.

They chanted for at least a minute though it felt like eternity, the pair pushed all their strength into banishing Riddle but nothing happened, by now the spirit should have been banished to places they would rather not know about but it was still struggling against the strength of the Slayer and Veela and the power of Giles and Dumbledore.

"Why isn't it working?" asked Buffy through clenched teeth.

"I don't know." Colette replied roughly through her clenched beak.

Sensing that they were tiring, Riddle threw the pair off him using a short burst of magic, followed immediately by Dumbledore and Giles.

With another burst of power he threw Tara backwards, falling to the floor, making her shield fall.

Groaning as she began to get back up she could hear who she thought was Buffy attacking again only to get thrown out of the way.

As she got to her knees and prepared to climb to her feet she came face to face with the stream of magic connecting Ginny to her possessor.

_Of course, he's still drawing power from her, that's why we can't get rid of him; he's anchored himself to her._

Standing she turned to Buffy as the Slayer got back to her feet a couple of feet away after another throwing.

"Excuse me." Tara gasped as she grabbed the handle of the knife Buffy had concealed in her boot and pulled it out.

"Hey!!" she complained, but Tara didn't stop as she brought the knife down into the stream of light connecting the pair.

As the flat reflective surface of the blade blocked the flow of energy Riddle staggered and gasped out in pain, clutching his chest as he did so.

"No!!" it shouted staggering towards her, the stream of magic dissipating as those elements on the Ginny side of the blade began to flow back into her followed by those from the Riddle side of the blade that had not made it to his body "You can't kill me!"

"You are already dead Tom." replied Dumbledore, coming to stand between Riddle and Tara.

Riddle began to fade, wisps of light breaking off from him and heading back towards Ginny with the odd black wisp diverting towards the containment box, each step becoming harder and harder until he took one last step, attempting to grab a hold of the Headmasters robes, but as his foot touched the ground he dissipated into smoke, the last remnants of Riddle flowed into the box and the lid slammed shut and magically sealed itself.

"Goodbye Tom." sighed Dumbledore, before turning. "Well done Tara, an excellent piece of deduction."

Tara just sighed and dropped to the floor in relief, it took less than three seconds for both the shields to be dropped and the others to rush in.

As soon as Willow's arm wrapped around her she relaxed enjoying the sensation and the relief over what just happened.

________________________________________________________________________

"Well that was definitely not fun." Groaned Anne as she climbed to her feet, rubbing her neck as she did so, she definitely felt more than a little drained after that experience. Stretching out her joints she looked over at Giles and Dumbledore.

"Next time you two decide to go for a short flight, please find someone else to land on."

It was then she realized that everyone was staring at her.

"What?"

They continued to stare.

"What!!"

As she said it she flicked her head slightly causing some of her hair to fall in front of her face. She idly went to put it back when she noticed the colour.

"What the!!" she exclaimed grabbing her hair and bringing it in front of her eyes.

And then another bit from the other side of her face.

It was white....Completely white.

"Oh God!!...That spirit thing aged me!! I must be older and wrinklier than Giles!! I...."

"Buffy!" interrupted the Watcher in question. "Ignoring the comments about my appearance, I can assure you that you are not older and 'wrinklier' as you put it than me."

"My hair....has gone....white!!" she exclaimed again as if they weren't quite grasping the point.

"And yet your hands are not wrinkled." replied Dumbledore.

"So what if my hands are not wrink....Hey?" she paused looking at her hands which were just as they had been before except for a few pressure marks from where the others had been holding her hands.

"Anyway, your hair is not all white." added Giles. "In fact not even a third of it is white."

"What?" she asked even more confused as Dumbledore began conjuring a mirror.

As soon as it was completely she literally grabbed it out of the air and looked into it.

"What the...." she tried but understandably she could not figure out a good way to finish her exclamation.

At the front of her head was a band roughly one to one and a half inches thick of pure white hair while the rest of hair was now a bright vibrant red, almost matching Willow's shade.

"Welcome to the club." grinned Bill Weasley, who like the other members of the Weasley clan were gathered around Ginny who had been transferred to a bed and although still unconscious, was looking significantly better.

"I'm....I'm...."

"One of us." smiled Willow, moving towards her now redheaded friend and hugging her.

________________________________________________________________________

AUTHORS NOTE: I apologise for the Latin, it's almost certainly wrong, but that's what you get when you use an online translator.

TRANSLATIONS: Everto , licentia somes nostri carus sanctumonialis.[Demon, leave the body of our beloved sister.]

Malum unus , creatura of obscurum , licentia is vas , solvo is ut suus verus erus , licentia is vel exsisto iacio sicco [Evil one, creature of darkness, leave this vessel, release it to its proper owner, leave it or be cast out]


	104. CH104 The Beast Inside

Chapter 104 – The Beast Inside

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date:26__th __October 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain - Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Adam's Tower_

_Time:Afternoon_

In a disused classroom in Adam's Tower, a knock echo's through the door.

After a moment's pause the door opens slightly and Hermione's face appeared.

"Adam?"

No answer.

"Looks like we're early." Said Tara as she and Hermione entered the room, it was empty save for a few lit candles floating near the walls, there was one door in the far wall and a balcony overlooking the grounds off to one side "How is Ginny doing, I didn't get the chance to check on her today."

"Better, she still feels completely and utterly guilt ridden about what happened and can barely go near Harry, Fleur, Draco or me without breaking down and crying every few minutes whilst apologising profusely for what she did while under Riddle's control."

"I'm not surprised that she is feeling that way, Willow was like that after Xander pulled her back from the darkness, give it time and she will be back to her old self."

"I know that Draco asked her to the ball again, that made a considerable difference to her, last time I checked they were sitting in her hospital bed holding each other."

"Good evening," Adam smiled as he entered through the door "I hope your day was pleasurable."

"Yes Prof,ADAM." Hermione autocorrected loudly "I'm never going to get that right."

He smiled slightly and gestured for them to follow him as he moved to the rooms other door.

He opened and held the door for them as they walked into the room, a room which Tara noticed greatly resembled the meditating room in Adam's mansion except it was round rather than rectangular, there were no pillars, no Ankh symbol and the windows had no glass in them, as Tara thought again the only things that were the same were the mats on the floor and the colour scheme.

________________________________________________________________________

Hermione had long ago realised that if the castle was a normal building many of the rooms would not fit inside its walls, Gryffindor Tower was a good example of this as it was wide enough to contain the Common Room but not the dormitories that extended up and out to the sides of it. The room they were now in would also not exist as it would be hanging in mid air out the side of the tower but thanks to the magic of Hogwarts it was possible.

Adam closed the door and turned to them.

"Welcome to the training room, in this room you will learn to master your new powers." he explained letting go of his staff so that it floated into the middle of the room "Now this is not going to be easy for either of you as you have to learn new methods of casting magic as well as gathering it."

He turned to Hermione.

"Your magic and the magic of other wands wizards and witches comes from within."

His staff erupted in colour as he spoke, and a physical representation of what he was saying appeared as an image of her casting a spell except you could see the magic gather from around her body and erupt out of her wand.

"More specifically from your blood, through the use of a wand or a staff you can channel your magic to do spells."

He then turned to Tara.

"Wicca's on the other hand draw magic from around them" the image from the staff changed to show Tara performing a spell "Drawing your magic from ground, air and other nearby sources, Wicca's often find it hard to store large amounts of magic for long, just as Willow did when she turned dark simply because they are not used to it."

Hermione saw Tara wince at the memories of her lover becoming Dark Willow.

"She absorbed magic out of the books in the Magic Box leaving them dry, but she couldn't hold it for long and burned through it quickly, though the residual magical signature remained with her, which she can still access from time to time , even though the books are now restored the dark magic still resides within her."

He breathed to let them absorb what they were hearing.

"You will both need to learn how to perform both sorts of magic as it will help you greatly in a fight, if you come across an opponent who absorbs his power from the air around him, you can beat him to the punch and remove it from the air before he has the chance, and when that magic is exhausted you can turn to your own internal magic."

The both nodded their understanding.

"Now, I will not teach you how to do this as you are more than capable of teaching each other, I will start by teaching you the different types of casting and what you can do and what you will not do with your magic."

They both noticed his choice of words, 'will not do' as opposed to 'cannot do'.

"There are several ways of casting, firstly and probably the easiest way is with a wand, staff or another magical instrument, the second is wordless magic which speaks for itself or rather doesn't, thirdly there is wandless magic which also fairly obvious and fourthly there is motionless magic which is at the opposite end of the scale to wand magic as it means performing magic entirely through the power of the mind, no words, no wand and no movement, by the time your training is finished you should be able to do this."

They again nodded their understanding.

"In addition there is what is called Action Magic which is used in all too many fantasy and sci-fi movies; it works by making a certain action trigger your magic, for example."

He snapped his fingers and vanished, the girls both stared in shock, he didn't Apparate as there was no pop, but he still shouldn't have been able to disappear in inside the school grounds.

There was another finger snap and he reappeared.

"Clicking is probably the easiest form though others methods can be used, questions?"

"How did you just do that, you can't just disappear inside the school, the wards prevent it." Hermione pointed out

"Firstly Hermione as I have said before the wards are only of use if the person opposing them is less powerful then they are and secondly how do you know I didn't simply turn myself invisible."

Hermione thought for a second then relaxed seeing his point, though she later realised that he did not tell them which of the two things he did.

"Ok then let's get to work."

Over the next two hours he trained them to use Action Magic to summon the staff to their hands, it was a lot simpler than they both thought, all they had to do was to focus on what they wanted the object to do then trigger it by channelling magic through their fingers.

By the end of the lesson, although the session was relatively easy they were both a bit tired from the constant use of magic, but what Adam planned to follow their sessions was something they did not want to miss, in an attempt to improve the general mood of those in mourning, Animagus testing.

________________________________________________________________________

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date:26__th __October 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain -Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Muggle Defence Classroom_

_Time:Evening_

Half an hour later in the MD Room, all the Scoobies (including Spike) were present as were the Gryffindor three, Ginny, Dawn and Neville. For Fleur and Colette there was obviously little point in attending as they already had alternate forms and for some reason Draco did not wish to attend either.

Adam, Remus, McGonagall and Tonks were the last to arrive; entering the room they greeted the assembled group.

"You all know why you are here," began Adam "As you know not all of you are wizards or witches but that is irrelevant as you have all had considerable contact with magic and that may be enough to allow some of you to shift forms, now when you assume the form of an animal through Animagus training you take on all the instincts of that animal and that is something that you will have to learn to control yourself, firstly the other Professors and myself will take each of you aside and deduce what animal you can transform into as a person can only transform themselves into certain animals with any degree of ease, that form tends to reflect your personality though this is not the case all the time."

Hermione cleared his throat "Sorry Adam, but Harry's father and his friends were able to transform into whatever animal they chose."

"No they weren't," Corrected Remus "They simply chose an animal that they were luckily enough to be able to transform into, if they had chosen alternate forms they might still have been trying to learn when they left school. Now who would like to go first?"

Anya jumped forward wearing her usual bright smile, she had asked Adam earlier and he had informed her that being a demon would not necessarily stop her being able to transform but he was not certain, the same was true of Spike and especially as he had Wizarding blood in his veins, so all bets were off as regards whether they would be able to transform.

Adam gestured for her to stand in front of him while he began casting the same spell that the Delacour's had cast on Harry to determine his form, though the image was concealed behind them so no one else saw what it was.

"Do you wish the others to know what you can become?" Adam asked.

"I'm a Bald Eagle!!" she exclaimed jumping to her feet and hugging him excitedly, before proceeding to jump up and danced around ecstatically.

Over the next hour they were all told of their animal forms and all chose to share it with the rest of the group.

Spike was a White Siberian Tiger because of his strength, hunter like skills and the rareness of being a vampire with a soul, he was quite proud of this.

Giles was a Barn Owl because of his intelligence, the darker side of his past and his ability to see things others can't.

Xander was a Wolf because he was loyal; he would fight to protect his friends and family and while relatively weak on his own he was fierce working as part of a group.

Tara, as they knew already was a Unicorn because of her inner and outer beauty as well as her grace, though she still refused to believe that she was any of those things, but she could be formidable and anyone on the wrong side of her would certainly get the point.

Buffy and Anne turned out to be Lioness's because of their inner strength; they're lion's hearts and their ability to easily prove that the female of the species was more deadly than the male.

Dawn was a Pegasus for similar reasons to Tara's except that when she realised her full potential she would quite literally take flight.

Hermione as they again already knew was a Giant Otter as they were quite and secluded but also clever (otters are one of the few animals to use tools), social and playful.

Ron turned out to be a Golden Gryphon (wings of an eagle and the body and head of a lion) because of his courage and bravery and his willingness to do anything to save his friends, something he was immensely proud of.

Ginny as they yet again knew was a Phoenix because of her beauty and her ability to make anyone smile with just a few words.

One of the most surprising was that Neville was a Kodiak Bear as although he looked 'big and cuddly' appearances could be deceiving (as all the members of the DA knew).

Willow though almost had a heart attack when she found out what she was.

"What....no, I can't be a dragon; I can't be some big fire breathing monster." Willow rambled worriedly as Tara ran over and took her hand.

"It's not so bad Willow, being a Dragon doesn't mean you are a monster, does it Adam?" she asked praying for the answer no.

"Of course not." He replied before Harry took over.

"Dragons aren't evil; people just think that because they can't understand them. I mean look at Sapphire, she's not evil is she and the only people who fear her are those that don't know her.

"I would in fact consider it a compliment having a Dragon form." continued Adam "Some species are the most magical and intelligent of all creatures and the type of dragon we saw is a particularly magical breed called a Golden Dragon, they are not native to this dimension but they are intelligent, kind and they will always aid those who they consider good. You are a Dragon Willow because of your fiery heart and because of an immense power at your command. A Dragon wields power unmatched by any other creature and it can be channelled to good or ill and I seriously doubt that you will use your power for the latter."

Giving Willow a few seconds to recover, he stood and addressed the rest of the class:

"Ok, now you all know what you are, you need to understand how to manipulate your body, we will start with the fingers, what I would like you to do is imagine your fingers at twice their current length, imagine them stretching to that length."

Everyone spread out and began attempting to stretch their fingers with varying levels of success, only Hermione, Tara and Dawn succeeded in the first fifteen minutes to their great surprise, though it did not do Dawn much good as she went a bit too far and she ended up nearly tripping over her two meter long fingers.

Luckily Tonks was able to instruct her on how to bring them back down to size, although not an Animagus being a Metamorphmagus meant that Tonks knew the techniques needed to expand and change body features, Harry (while tutoring Hermione and Ron) did ask why she was not participating to which she answered.

"Knowing how accident prone I am in this body, do you really want to imagine how bad I would be in another body?"

By the end of the lesson even Ron, Xander and Spike had mastered the simple skill that was stretching their fingers and some were beginning to move onto noses and ears, something that Tonks was particularly adept at.

At the end Adam called everyone's attention

Hermione and Tara were particularly glad when this session ended as they were already exhausted from their training session with Adam before the class: they were getting the hang of Action Magic and Adam informed them that they would be moving onto to Wordless Magic and Wandless Magic during their next lesson, and given how exhausting Action Magic was, at this rate they would be lucky if they survived to fight Voldemort.

________________________________________________________________________

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date:26__th __October 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain -Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts Grounds_

_Time:Late Evening_

Later that night, in the pitch black a young man with a scar on his head crept out of the school under an invisibility cloak and crossed the grounds to the lake, hiding his cloak amongst the shrubs around the lakes edge he glanced around him before transforming into a dragon and heading down into the lake, he slithered across the surface for a moment before his head, shortly followed by his body disappeared below the surface, leaving barely a ripple to indicate his presence.

________________________________________________________________________

AUTHORS NOTE 1: If you are wondering why I did not give you a scene of Ginny waking up, it is because I don't think I would have been able to do it justice, thusly I left it out so sorry if you were expecting that.

AUTHORS NOTE 2: I am not very happy with this chapter as a whole, it is a rewrite from my original draft which was written at least two years ago, back then I was to be honest very bad at writing, having written it though I cannot think of a better way to do it, I would miss it out entirely and just have the explanation at the beginning elsewhere but there is a relatively insignificant plot point that I used in my original draft and that I plan to use in this one regarding one of the character and their Animagus form.

AUTHORS NOTE 3: Also someone spotted in the last chapter a mistake I made, it was a small but rather significant one, some others of you may have noticed how Molly Weasley, who you will all remember is dead seemed to forget this fact for a couple of lines and rejoined the cast. That's one of the problems authors have when they are a few chapters ahead of the readers, you tend to forget which events have transpired in which chapters. I have corrected this mistake.

AUTHORS NOTE 4: If you are still reading well done, not many people do. Firstly I cannot recall if I got this chapter beta'd but I wanted to give you all a present so MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone, or if you don't believe in Christmas HAPPY NEW YEAR.


	105. CH105 You Shall Go To The Ball

Chapter 105 – You Shall Go To The Ball

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date:31__st__ October 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain - Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Gryffindor Common Room_

_Time:Evening_

It was Saturday; 6:50 in the evening and the ball was starting in ten minutes.

Ron, Harry, Draco and Neville were waiting in the Gryffindor Common Room for Fleur, Gabrielle, Colette (all of whom had started getting ready in their own rooms before joining the rest of the girls to finish off), Ginny, Hermione, Luna and Dawn (both of whom had opted to get ready with the others) to descend the girl's stairs, the girls had all grouped together and were fusing over each other's make up and other women stuff that the boys had no desire to learn about.

They weren't the only ones waiting as there were others around the room, most trying to avoid Draco or starring at Ron, Harry and Neville for even going near him despite his good behaviour that term.

This had to be the first time Ron, Harry, Neville and Draco had been in the same room and had not minded being in each other's presence, they had even briefly discussed Quidditch earlier to try to take their minds off things, carefully avoiding discussing the school Quidditch matches as even if they were the best of friends that was bound to start an argument over which team was best, but now they were too eager to see what their respective partners looked like and so nervous about making fools of themselves that all conversation had ceased.

All four of the boys were wearing new dress robes along with matching capes, they were the variety that Adam and Lucius Malfoy usually wore and attached round the neck and hung equally over both shoulders rather than those that hung only over one shoulder like Durmstrang students used during the Tournament.

Their attire had been chosen by Colette; she had got them for all of the guys going with them, insisting that they all looked their best for their partners and knowing that Ron and Harry wouldn't have much of a clue what to wear she had decided it was best to pick their clothes herself.

Draco's were black with a Slytherin green lining with silver highlights and fastenings.

Ron's were black with a Gryffindor red lining, gold highlights and fastenings.

And Neville's and Harry's were black with blue sapphire linings with silver highlights and fastenings.

Harry was a bit worried about his attire as it was almost wearing Ravenclaw colours and in fact they would be if the silver was bronze and the blue was slightly deeper (Neville dating a Ravenclaw obviously did not have this problem). It wasn't the fact that it was Ravenclaw colours; it was the fact that it was not Gryffindor colours that made him worry, but Colette had assured him that he would look wonderful.

At that moment the sound of high heeled shoe footsteps were heard from the upper floor as the boys other halves appeared at the top of the staircase. All heads turned in their direction as they descend the steps.

On the far right was Miss Ginevra Weasley wearing a black satin halter dress, which complemented her red hair nicely, the bottom of the dress sloped from left to right reaching from just below her thigh on her right leg to just past her knee on her left allowing easy movement. She wore a pair of matching high heeled shoes and a single silver necklace set with an emerald. Her hair had been fully straightened and styled and was tucked behind her ears, it looked redder than usual to the extent that it could be described as flaming. She also wore red lipstick that highlighted her mouth.

Even Ron couldn't complain (much) about this dress, it didn't look too revealing but it was close fitting and just revealing enough to show off her now developing curves, he would have been concerned about the necklace but he guessed that that was Colette's doing.

On the left were Misses Hermione Granger and Miss Dawn Summers wearing flowing red satin gowns with spaghetti straps which revealed quite a lot of their backs and chests but also still managed to remain respectably descent. They also wore matching pairs of high heeled shoes and necklaces of the same design as Ginny's, each containing a single ruby in a gold chain. Hermione's hair was curly as usual but looked more stylised and Dawn's had been straightened and some lighter highlights added, both girls appearance were finished off by deep red lipstick.

These three may have been breath taking but they were nothing compared to what came next, in the centre were the jewels in the crown.

In the centre wearing deep blue flowing dresses were Miss Luna Lovegood, Miss Colette Fontaine and Misses Fleur and Gabrielle Delacour. Their dresses were full length, satin and strapless, they wore blue high heeled shoes though not too high (just enough so that Fleur and Colette were about the same height as Harry, that Luna was closer in height to Neville and the Gabrielle could get a little height while still remaining stable), they also like the others wore silver single chained necklaces, theirs containing sapphires. Their hair had been straightened and hung down their backs and the looks were completed with deep red lipstick.

Together they truly were a sight to be seen and none there present would ever think of 'Loony' Luna Lovegood the same again.

As they descended the stairs all eyes followed them.

As they reached the bottom they regarded the boys with the same admiration they had just been given.

"You....you look....you look...." attempted Ron speaking to the ladies.

"I second that speechlessness." Harry concurred, Neville and Draco were so in awe they could do little else but nod in agreement.

Draco recovered from his speechless next and in attempting to stop staring at all the ladies tried to distract himself by looking elsewhere before his eyes fell on the necklace around Ginny's neck.

"That isn't silver." He stated confused.

"What is it then?" Ginny asked.

"I don't know buts it's made out of the same material as your ring Ginny." Hermione pointed out.

"Adam supplied the necklaces." explained Colette "We will have to ask him about it later, but right now we have a dance to go to. Ladies take your partners arms please."

The boys quickly recovering offered their arms to their partners, Draco to Ginny, Ron to Hermione, Harry to Fleur and Neville to Luna. Draco and the latter two then offered their arms to Dawn, Gabrielle and Colette respectively, offering to be escort them until they met up with the others.

"Prince charming." Dawn said moving to Draco's side "Will you take us to the ball."

"Yes Cinderella," Harry replied "We shall."

________________________________________________________________________

The group walked through the corridors of Hogwarts passing many a happy couple on their way to the ball, but none were as stunning as the group as they proceeded towards the Great Hall.

Upon reaching the Entrance Hall they saw a collection of Professors and guests both in pairs and on their own waiting for the Ball to commence.

In the centre of the entrance hall were Buffy and Spike, Willow and Tara, Giles, Flitwick, Anya and Xander and a very grumpy looking Snape.

The reason for his annoyance, other than being forced to attend the ball at all was due to the fact that Anya was hanging on his arm.

Apparently there had been a sort of non fight between Xander and Anya where both agreed that neither had the automatic right to go with the other and neither should expect to, though both obviously thought that the other would not get anyone else and that they would come back to them and have to actually ask.

Under normal circumstances this would just have meant a few tense minutes before the ball started where they both agreed that they both could go with anyone else if they wanted and that they had just chosen not to and that they had opted to go with each other for the others sake.

Unfortunately for Anya in this case, Colette had heard that this was bound to happen from the Scoobies and decided for a joke (and for the fact that Xander wasn't bad looking if you wanted a dance partner) to see how things would turn out if one of them actually had a partner to go with, so lucky Xander got a Veela partner for the evening. Much to the surprise of Anya who looked rather stunned when Xander told her as she tried to edge up to him with her 'I don' have to go with you' speech already on her lips.

This meant that Anya had to rapidly find another partner to save face and lucky for her and unluckily for Snape the only other males present at the time were Dumbledore, Flitwick and Giles.

Even more unluckily for Snape though, was the fact that Anya seemed to have taken a liking to him, because as soon as he had given up trying to unhook her from his arm he just sighed in defeat and was now just giving her short somewhat blunt answers to her chatter allowing her to talk and talk and talk.

Coming back to the subject of attire; Buffy was wearing a long pink dress similar to the dress she wore for the school Prom though she had learned from past experience and had bought a dress that instead of being restrictive like her prom dress had a split up the leg for easier mobility.

Spike had (to the astonishment of all) ended up wearing very similar attire to Draco; his altered memories bad obviously given him alternative views on fashion.

Willow was wearing a long black satin dress with deep red embroidery while Tara was wearing a long strapless dress in deep blue velvet, they found out later that Adam had spotted the latter dress in Colette's shop when she had dragged him to France to help her while she chose what the others were going to wear and knew instantly that it was for Tara.

Snape was wearing many layers of black robes (just for a change) although these did look more formal. Giles and Xander were wearing simple black dress robes embracing the tradition of the Wizarding World and Anya was wearing a bright green dress, very similar in colour to the bridesmaid's dresses at her not-a-wedding though it looked much better on the long straight dress which was of the same design as Buffy's.

All the ladies also had necklaces like those of the students and teachers supplied by Adam.

Flitwick was wearing brightly coloured robes that were in competition with Dumbledore's most....the best word for it would probably be 'conspicuous' attire to see who could stand out more.

All eyes turned to the stairs as the group from Gryffindor tower moved towards them.

"Hey, big wow." Buffy exclaimed.

"You can say that again." Xander agreed as Colette graciously disengaged from Neville's arm and moved over to take his.

"Dawnie," Willow said with pride "You're all grown up."

"Ok ok, don't get all mushy on me; we have a ball to get to." Dawn said trying to ignore the mushiness of her 'family' "Other than my date who are we missing?"

Dawn's date for the evening turned out to be the Head Boy and seventh year Ravenclaw Roger Davies, apparently he had asked her the day before not having had the chance to do so before considering everything that had happened.

"Only Adam and Anne." Buffy informed them.

Footsteps were heard on the stairs and all eyes turned to see the descending couple.

"VERY big wow."

________________________________________________________________________

Anne had just finished dressing, she had been running around panicking trying to find the necklace Adam had brought her, he had apparently bought matching necklaces for all the ladies and SHE had lost hers.

Thank God she had a dress with a split up the leg or she would have tripped over it by now.

Buffy had come in earlier and told her that they were heading down, the Ball was starting soon and it was partially her idea, she had to be there at the beginning and the fact that Adam was waiting for her made it worse.

She finally threw up her hands in frustration and slumped down onto the bed only to hear a clink of something metal hitting the wooden floor.

Looking down she saw the offending necklace, it had got tangled in the bedding. Quickly donning it she slipped her shoes on and rushed out the door.

Rushing down into what was now known as the Scoobies Common Room, she saw Adam standing patiently beside the fire, he turned upon hearing her enter.

Wow, he really knew how to dress up.

"That dress looks good on you."

"And you.... you're...." she couldn't think of an appropriate word, handsome didn't seem to quite cover it.

"I suggest we proceed quickly, they will be starting soon." He said bailing her out.

"Oh yeah." she finished rushing down to take his arm as they headed down to the Ball.

________________________________________________________________________

The couple that came down the stairs were stunning.

Anne was wearing the same design dress to Buffy the only difference being that hers was a deep blue.

The surprise was mostly due to her partner, Adam was wearing a shirt that had string fastenings on both sides which neared the centre further down the garment (the sort of used a few centuries ago by the well off), he wore an intricately designed belt with a stag emblem on the belt buckle, his sheaved sword hung at his side (this was the first time anyone had actually seen it while it was sheaved), black trousers and a black cloak with silver highlights and a deep blue lining that complemented the blue of Anne's dress.

"Wow....He's almost a knight in shining armour." Anya exclaimed "Just without the armour."

Adam smiled as they walked toward the group, by this time many students including Dawn's apologetic date (apparently he had had to dodge Peeves who was throwing water balloons at students again) had joined them and were also waiting to enter.

"Well I believe it is time we got this ball rolling." Adam said moving towards the door with his partner, Buffy and Spike moved up on their left and Harry and Fleur moved up on the right, the rest of the group lined up behind them, Dawn nudged her date into taking Gabrielle's arm as they entered, knowing that she would soon wonder off in all the excitement, all the other teachers and students could be heard gathering behind them.

Adam waved his free arm and the doors slowly swung open to reveal the hall within.

The sight that greeted them was truly magnificent, all the house tables had been cleared away as well as the head table, along one wall a series of tables were laid out full of refreshments including what appeared to be butterbeer, wine, punch and champaign as well as an assortment of other drinks and nibbles. Around the room hovered pumpkins with candles in them helping to create the Halloween theme.

Along the other walls were chairs, benches and tables all decorated for the ball, at the far end of the hall on top of the raised area where the teachers table usually resided stood Professor Dumbledore (who had departed to make a few final tweaks shortly before the students arrived) in his 'conspicuous' robes that only just outdid Professor Flitwick's. Behind him was an assortment of musical instruments (no musicians) that were hovering in the air awaiting the order to play.

Professor Dumbledore stepped forward.

"Welcome to Hogwarts first Halloween Ball." he said with great enthusiasm "Enter and enjoy."

________________________________________________________________________

As the hall began to fill and the students, teachers and guests began to spread around, Adam and Anne moved towards the headmaster.

"You've outdone yourself Brian, the hall is spectacular."

"Yes it is very good isn't it;" he smiled "Though Professor's McGonagall and Flitwick deserve most of the credit; they transformed and charmed most of the decoration."

At that moment Snape joined the discussion dragging a fairly annoyed looking Anya, still firmly attached to his arm, behind him.

"Sir, do you really believe it is a good idea to allow the students as well as that French woman's sister to have free access to alcohol?" he finished, finally coming to a stop and allowing Anya to catch up with him.

"There are sobering spells on all the more alcoholic beverages and Gabrielle was given an extra sobering potion before she arrived. Do be careful Severus; you were dragging your date all the way across the hall."

Anne almost burst out laughing at the look on Snape's face when the word 'date' was mentioned.

Even Adam had to cough to hide his amusement, and for Adam to have any expression other than the slightest smile was unusual.

The glare that Snape sent the headmaster could have curdled milk.

"She is not my date, she's…"

"A Klingon Cap'n." Anne finished, putting on a very bad Scottish accent before leaning heavily against Adam to stop herself falling over in amusement.

Those Muggleborn students that were in hearing range were in hysterics.

Snape sent them glares that clearly threatened that they would be cleaning out his potions cabinet in detention for the next month if they didn't shut up very rapidly, which luckily all had the sense to do. The only three people who had not been put off by Snape's glares were Adam, Dumbledore (who had now restrained themselves to laughing lightly) and Anne who could barely stand.

"She is NOT my date....she just…insists on clinging...."

A couple of snorts came from around them at his choice of wording, to which Snape almost growled.

"....to my arm."

Anya stood there smiling as usual, her earlier annoyance at being dragged having dissipated.

"I'm giving you the honour of having me for a partner." she beamed up at him "I'm expecting you to dance later."

It was too perfect; even Snape didn't have an answer to that one as he tried three times to speak by opening and closing his mouth.

Adam and Dumbledore were still trying there up most to stop themselves laughing; Anne though was still in hysterics.

"Well we'll have to leave you two to get better acquainted." Adam commented evilly before the three of them walked of quietly chuckling, leaving a very put out Snape.

They almost felt sorry for him.

________________________________________________________________________

On the other side of the hall Harry, Fleur and the other students were introducing Dawn to butterbeer.

"Come on Dawn, it's not going to bite you."

"It biting me is not what I am worried about, I have seen was some of your potions and drinks do to you and I have no desire to become a steam train."

"The only potion that does that is a Pepper-Up Potion," Roger replied "This is just a mild alcoholic drink.

"You will probably have to take ten at least to match the amount of alcohol found in a standard pint." Added Harry.

"Eleven and a quarter." Hermione corrected.

"Eleven then, it's not like fire whisky for goodness sake, it's not going to make you smoke."

"Go on Dawn," smiled Xander, holding up his own "Be daring."

"Alright, alright." She said raising her hands in defeat "I'll try some, just stop nagging me about it."

"We just want you to enjoy yourself." Smiled Ginny, handing her a glass of butterbeer.

Looking at it cautiously for a few seconds she slowly took a small sip.

"It's....not bad," she replied "Tastes a bit like shandy."

At that second the instruments began to play a slow waltz and everyone moved away from the centre of the room leaving a gap on the floor.

The girls exchanged excited looks while the boys (except for Harry, Draco and Xander who knew how to dance) began looking very worried.

The girls began pulling their respective partners onto the floor, encountering various levels of resistance; many of the other girls in the room seemed to encounter similar trouble.

Draco, Harry and Xander didn't need to be dragged and in fact led Ginny, Fleur and Colette onto the dance floor without the slightest hint of worry, both the younger two knowing it would be a lot better than the Yule Ball, Harry had since learnt to dance and Draco was not unfortunate enough to be paired with Pansy.

Ron on the other hand had to be dragged onto the dance floor by Hermione and seeing as he was considerably larger and stronger than her was it was no mean feat and took the assistance of Dawn to do it before she rejoined her own partner who wasn't as resisting.

When they reached the dance floor Harry pulled Fleur towards him and slipped his hand around her waist as their bodies moved up against each other, both enjoying the feeling of the open expression of their love.

Ginny and Draco moved into a similar position.

Hermione on the other hand had to hold Ron to her to stop him keeping an eye on Draco and Ginny, he had accepted the relationship and was not going to say anything but being a Weasley he was still very protective and was not quite prepared to permit wandering hands yet, Hermione eventually got him to stop by doing something very un-Hermione like and sucking his pulse point causing him to send out a low moan. She knew by now that once she had his attention she could easily hold of it.

________________________________________________________________________

Half an hour later Adam and Anne were slowly twirling on the dance floor. As an un-romantic couple they maintained a proper dancing distance. From where she was Anne could see many a couple around them.

To their left was Willow and Tara holding each other close, she thought what an interesting dilemma it must be, which of them should take the lead.

To their right was Buffy and Spike, the latter of whom was proving to be quite the able dancer.

Behind them was Hagrid wearing a new specially made suit (curtsey of Colette's Shop) dancing with Professor McGonagall who was wearing spectacular royal purple robes.

Now as strange as that couple looked with Hagrid towering over the Professor the next pair was by far odder.

On Anne's far side a very stiff Snape was being pulled around the dance floor by a very eager and energetic Anya. That had to be the biggest personality clash in history.

And behind Adam were Harry and Fleur who were now holding each other closer than Willow and Tara, Anne knew that the girls had agreed to share their partners as there was a higher number of females to males, meaning that at that moment Luna was leaning against the drinks table holding onto a glass of butterbeer while Neville danced with Fleur's sister.

Davies and Dawn were currently dancing over to their left (after he and Harry had swapped back to their original partners); they were not exactly dancing intimately but still rather closely together.

Anne was a bit uncertain about Davies, he was by all account well behaved, the Head Boy and a good student but Anne still had the right to be suspicious, especially when even Harry and the others didn't know him that well, plus the fact that from experience she knew that caution was needed.

Luckily Buffy hadn't spotted all the swapping of partners yet, she knew herself well enough to know that she wouldn't like someone who was with someone else dancing with her sister rather than that someone else, and if she didn't know Harry and the others so well she knew she wouldn't like it and that meant that Buffy wouldn't like it either, and if Buffy didn't like it she would try to stop it which would interfere with the evening, so she would have to stop Buffy stopping it.

She had to crease her eyebrows in confusion. That was the sort of sentence that no one should ever have to say or think, too many personal pronouns, the English language was obviously not invented with doppelgangers in mind.

________________________________________________________________________

Dawn sighed in contentment as she and Roger swayed.

"What's wrong?" he asked, looking down at her.

"Nothing," she replied "That wasn't a 'something's wrong' sigh, it was a 'this it nice' sigh."

"I'm glad to hear it." He grinned, readjusting his hold on her, subtly pulling her closer as he did so.

________________________________________________________________________

The Ball continued on for a couple of hours dancing, partner swapping, talking, the usual fun activities that went on at balls

Later on the dances changed and faster music came on allowing the students to really believe they were at a disco.

After another hour Fleur and Harry decided to get some air, it had began to get a bit stuffy in the main hall and Harry (along with most of the other guys) had barely had a chance to sit down all evening thanks to all the passing around of partners.

They wandered out into the Entrance Hall, they had seen Draco and Ginny, and Ron and Hermione wander out earlier obviously fleeing the close atmosphere of the Hall which was getting rather energetic with all the rapid music that had started playing.

"Ah that's better." Fleur sighed as they leaned against a wall just inside the Main Entrance.

"Much." Harry agreed turning to her "You're beautiful."

"I know." She replied

"Modest to." He added sarcastically.

"Oh, most definitely." She agreed with a smile "But most of all beautiful."

"You most certainly are." he said leaning over her.

They were mere centimetres apart.

Harry leaned in closer, pressing Fleur to the wall.

He tenderly laid a kiss on her lips which she returned gently, wrapping her arms around his body, pulling him tight against her as she began to stroke her long digits over his back.

"Hey guys, have you see...." Dawn began as she exited the hall and did a sharp about turn as soon as she saw them pressed against each other "And I'm leaving now."

"It's ok Dawn." Smiled Fleur as Harry moved back to a respectable distance "We were only kissing."

"Looked like one hell of a kiss."

"She's one hell of a kisser." Returned Harry, straightening out his cloak as the three walked back to the corridor the Great Hall's door opened from.

"As are you Arry." Fleur purred running her hand up Harry's back to stroke at the hairs at the base of his skull.

"Hey guys," interrupted Dawn "Not in the middle of the hall, wait until you are back in your rooms before you start purring and stroking and things."

Harry chuckled lightly before turning to look at her.

"What was it you were going to ask us when you saw us?"

"What....Oh yeah, I was going to ask, have you se...."

They stopped as Dawn came to a halt and as her expression changed to one of fear.

________________________________________________________________________

Draco and Ginny were wandering around the castle grounds, hand in hand discussing the night's events.

"I didn't know you could dance." Ginny asked turning to him

"My mother insisted that I learned, she always said that 'The Lord of the Manor' should know how to take part at his own balls."

"Oh." she said turning back to the front.

"What about you, where did you learn to dance?" he asked glancing at her.

"My mother gave me lessons, I hated every minute of them though and I'm surprised I remembered any of it."

He gave a slight chuckle.

"What?" she said.

"Nothing." he replied followed by a louder chuckle.

"What?" she said turning to face him.

"I was just wondering what my father would say if he saw me now."

Ginny, realising the humour giggled.

"I wish I could see his face, me the heir to The Malfoy Manor, estate and fortune, friends with Harry Potter, his master's worst enemy,"

They were both almost in hysterics.

"Can you imagine it, he's probably say that I was a disgrace...."

"To the name of Malfoy."

They both went deadly silent as the voice spoke; they slowly turned to the source.

For the first time they actually noticed where they had ended up.

On their right was Hogwarts about four hundred meters away, on their left was the lake about twenty meters away, behind them was the Forbidden Forest and in front of them....

Was a host of Death Eaters.

"Shit."


	106. CH106 Ballroom Shoot Out

Chapter 106 – Ballroom Shoot Out

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date:31__st__ October 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain - Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Hogwarts Grounds_

_Time:Evening_

In front of them was a host of Death Eaters with one tall figure at the head.

The mask of the foremost figure had been removed to display Lucius Malfoy's scarred face.

"You piece of FILTH, you would contaminated the name of Malfoy with her impure blood, how DARE you!!" the figure said approaching them menacingly.

Draco moved in front of Ginny, putting on his usual Malfoy sneer.

"Her blood," he growled out "Is as pure as yours is....Lucius." he literally spat the last word "You know that as well as I do and as for me being a disgrace to the name of wizard, I have just done what all Malfoy's have done and found myself a Pureblood mate who I someday intend to marry."

Ginny realised he was stalling for time, she just hoped someone would notice they were not at the Ball before they both got killed,

Hey!

Wait?

Did he say....MARRY?

Where in all of Merlin's beard did that come from?

"MARRY!!" Lucius roared, there were collective gasps from the Death Eaters, the son of Lucius Malfoy associating with and intending to marry a Weasley, some of them probably loved this; one of the most respected Death Eater had a son who far from following in his father's footsteps was choosing to ally himself with the enemy.

"I FORBID IT!!"

Draco burst out laughing, which was probably not the best thing to do when there were a large amount of Death Eaters in front of you, by this time Ginny had drawn her wand and was concealing it behind Draco's body.

"You forbid it, does it really look like that is going to stop me, you call me a disgrace to the name of Malfoy, the only sort of wizard you consider to be worth a knut is a Pureblood with a massive bank balance, lots of power and a tattoo on his arm, well guess what DADDY!" he said almost psychotically "Your dark lord doesn't fit in to any of those categories."

"SILENCE!!" Lucius roared.

"Let's start with the tattoo shall we, he ain't got one mate." Draco deliberately mispronounced the words to anger his father, knowing how he insisted on proper speech and manners at all times. Ginny could tell Draco was loving this, his voice wasn't just dripping with sarcasm, it was pouring.

"He just gives them to other stupid sods who are blind enough to follow him, secondly the fortune."

"SILENCE!!" he repeated

"He's an orphan and was left penniless, why do you think he siphons money of off you, thirdly the power,"

"I ORDER YOUR SILENCE!!"

"Your powerful lord is so powerful he has personally failed to destroy a single boy on no less than four occasions not including failed attempts by other incarnations of himself and his pathetic band of lap dogs."

There were growls from the Death Eaters and wands were levelled in their direction.

"Draco." Ginny whispered in warning.

"Oh yes and lastly your precious leader is a Mud-Blood....OH YEAH boys, didn't you know that, did your dictator fail to tell you that. He's not just a pathetic excuse for a wizard, he's a pathetic excuse for a HUMAN, when it comes to leaders I would rather follow a flubber worm."

That did it.

Curses erupted from wands.

________________________________________________________________________­

­

Harry spun around at the fear in Dawn's eyes.

From the Main Hallway they could see dozens of black cloaks filling the near end of the Hall, Harry flicked his wand out of his holster, while Fleur withdrew her wand and Dawn withdrew a dagger from unknown places.

"Do I want to know where you were concealing those?" Harry asked.

Dawn wiggled an eyebrow while Fleur hinted "Maybe." before hoisting up their dresses and together running for the hall.

One of the Death Eaters turned; signalling to three others together they flicked their wands at the doors so that they slammed shut in front of the trio, the sounds of bolts and locks could be heard being activated from the far side.

Both Dawn and Harry slammed shoulder first into the door deciding that they could tackle it down.

This resulted in them both colliding with the door at high speed followed by two loud grunts of pain.

"ARGH....Ok....That was stupid." Harry commented rubbing his aching shoulder.

"Magically sealed door....very stupid." Agreed Dawn.

"Alohomora!!" Cast Fleur.

The door didn't even budge.

"Bombardare!!" a large cloud of dust erupted from the lock but the door didn't even budge.

Harry ignoring the lingering pain in his shoulder temporarily stowed his wand and began to spin fire between his hands before launching a large stream of it at the door.

It groaned loudly on its hinges, about the same as the previous spell did but again no significant affect.

Screams and shouts could be heard through the door.

"We have to get in there." Dawn shouted turning to the others "Think of a spell."

"I'm trying...." replied Fleur, Harry was busy centring himself, about to take another attempt at the door, this time using his currently secret Earth Elemental abilities, he had redrawn his wand so as to make it look like a spell "Do you know any Latin?"

Dawn turned to Fleur sceptically "Getting to know me is all well and good but this is not a time to be thinking about me academic knowledge."

"Spells are more powerful when put with words, mine and Harry's spells are strong but if we can work out the right word we can make a spell to get through the door more effectively."

"Oh, yes I do know some Latin."

"Think of a way of opening a door and the appropriate Latin words."

The sound of shattering wood was heard through the door.

"Quickly."

________________________________________________________________________

Utter chaos erupted, students started screaming, falling over each other in an attempt to get out of the way as the Death Eaters poured into the Great Hall through one of the side doors. Anne caught sight of the main doors slamming shut as Harry, Fleur and Dawn ran towards them from the other side.

She along with the rest of the teachers and Scoobies immediately turned business, drawing wands and a very odd collection of concealed pointy weapons, which made even the Death Eaters think twice.

The two dozen or so teachers and guests including a very annoyed looking Dumbledore and particular male MD teacher brandishing a five foot slightly translucent sword in a very threatening and skilful manner raised their weapons to fire the first volley, it helped that they were also backed up by a large majority of the senior students.

"STOP!!"

Much to the surprise of all the two groups did, mainly out of shock at being told to.

Stepping forward and leaning on his sword Adam started counting.

"Two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve, let's say around twenty of you against this assembled group. I don't think we are going to need everyone for this one Professor," he said turning briefly to Dumbledore "In fact I think four should be more than enough."

"Four!!" laughed a particularly bold Death Eater "Do you want to die."

Turning to him and replied:

"I wonder what you would say if I replied 'yes'."

There was a moments silence as people stood uncertainly about, unsure how to follow the statement.

"Anyway where was I? Oh yes, I think around four, but before we start let's put on the right background music."

Turning his attention to the instruments he clicked his fingers, causing the drums to jump into action, starting a beat, causing several of the Scoobies and Muggle-Born's to smile as they recognised it what had just started playing.

Turning back to the Death Eaters Adam started the song.

"You ready Anne?"

"Aha."

"Spike?"

"Yeah."

"Buffy?"

"Ok."

"Alright fellas....Let's Gooooooo!!"

The trio and Adam leapt into action, literally in Adam's case. In a very Jedi like movement he jumped the five meters between the two groups in a single bound and landed on three Death Eaters instantly knocking them out while swinging his fists out incapacitating another two.

In between curses Anne (who had opted to use her wand and a knife) noticed Adams sword swing around and pass straight through the body of a Death Eater, the particles of the sword actually seemed to disperse like smoke on contact with the Death Eater and reform on his far side. The Death Eater collapsed to the floor presumably unconscious.

The Hall was utter chaos though it was mostly organised, which was also the difference between the two opposing sides, the Death Eaters did not seem to understand the concept of team work.

"_Oh it's been getting so hard  
Livin' with the things you do to me, aha"_

As the invisible group started to sing, at the far end of the hall Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall were erecting shields around the students who had made it up and behind the teachers; the rest of the teachers were providing covering fire from behind hastily upturned tables which had been summoned to them from the wall where the refreshments had been by Professor Flitwick who was also charming the food and chairs to fly at the attacking Death Eaters (and as some of them would later testify it is very difficult to aim spells when your being pelted with pringles).

"_Oh my dreams are getting so strange  
I'd like to tell you everything I see"_

Other than the teachers, also entering the fray were students (most of whom were DA members) including Colin, Hannah, Lavender and Neville who all looked very annoyed that their evening had been interrupted and wanted revenge for Dennis Creevey, Seamus Finnigan and Susan Bones deaths, the remainder of the older students were directed by and angry Dumbledore to hang back and protect the younger ones.

"_Oh, I see a man at the back  
As a matter of fact his eyes are red as the sun"_

What made the DA group critical in this fight was that unlike the teachers they were not opposite the Death Eaters at the end of the hall but were in fact hiding behind a couple of tables which were half way down one side of the Hall so they were almost level with the Death Eaters creating a cross fire, between Professor Flitwick, the rest of the teachers and the DA members which was seriously affecting the Death Eaters chances of creating an affective attack against them, which was made all the more difficult for the Death Eaters as Lavender had followed Flitwick's example and was currently clobbering them over the heads with the base drum.

"_And a girl in the corner let no one ignore her  
'Cause she thinks she's the passionate one"_

What made this even harder was the fact that Buffy, Spike, Anne and Adam were smashing their way through the Death Eater ranks. Willow, Tara, Hagrid and the rest of the Scoobies had assigned themselves the task of protecting said group and were distracting the Death Eaters that tried to use their weight in numbers against the close combat fighters by using the floating pumpkins as crude missiles, albeit extremely messy ones when thrown hard.

"_Oh, yeah, it was like lightning, everybody was frightening  
And the music was soothing, and they all started grooving_

_Yeah, Yeah, Yeah-Yeah-Yeah"_

It was hard to tell which side was actually winning; there had only been around twenty Death Eaters to start with but reinforcements had entered through the side entrance (an entrance which had since been cut off by Dumbledore levitated several tables over the gap after sending several of the teachers down the passageway to guard it) bringing their numbers up to around forty.

"_And the man in the back said everyone attack  
And it turned into a ballroom blitz"_

By this time the wounded were beginning to mount up on both sides, several students and teachers had been hit (none fatally) and had been pulled behind the shield at the end of the hall, the Death Eaters were suffering greater losses though as the melee group ducked and weaved in amongst them.

"_And the girl in the corner said boy I want to warn you  
It'll turn into a ballroom blitz"_

Their presence was the main reason that superior numbers of the teachers, students and the Scoobies had not already resolved the fight as they were having to avoid hitting their own side, but the advantages were that less spells were being sent out from the group of Death Eaters as they were having to deal with the four fighters in amongst their number which usually resulted in friendly fire as the four of them were just that little bit too fast for them. Buffy and Anne were fighting as a pair, with Buffy sending knock out blows, while Anne hit them with lighter hits and shielded them both from attack, Spike had his demon face on (although he could not hit anyone) and was chasing those that ran away from him directly towards Adam whose seriously big sword was causing havoc amongst their numbers.

"_It'll turn into a ballroom blitz  
Ballroom blitz, ballroom blitz, ballroom blitz, ballroom blitz"_

Hagrid was probably the most surprising of all those in the fight, his new dress robes that unlike his massive coat showed off his immense muscles (and bloody hell were they immense) easily explained why the most of the pumpkins thrown by him knocked their targets out cold upon impact. He also appeared to be immune to most spells, the others had noticed that not one curse had even seemed to slow him down, his thick skin had caused one hair raising moment when a bone shattering spell had flown between Xander and Giles, had bounced of Hagrid's stomach, narrowly missed Xander's skull on the way back and had impacted the unfortunate Death Eater who cast it in the first place, killing him instantly.

________________________________________________________________________

"Come on, come on, think of something!!"

"I'M TRYING!!" Dawn shouted back irritably before shutting her eyes trying to concentrate.

While Dawn had been wracking her brains Harry and Fleur had kept trying unsuccessfully to open the door which had only resulted in a lot of cracked stonework as the castle was built incredibly strongly.

"GOT IT!!" she said swinging round to face the door "Say...."

________________________________________________________________________

The scene in the Great Hall was truly spectacular; the Death Eater group were defeated.

"_It's it's a ballroom blitz  
Yeah, it's a ballroom blitz"_

As the song ended Adam surveyed the battlefield, searching the hall for any remaining targets, Death Eaters were lying unconscious all over the hall with scatterings of students, teachers and guests interspersed among them.

"Well that was bracing." Buffy commented, before turning to Adam "Ballroom Blitz?"

"Can you think of a better song to have played during that?"

"No," she laughed "I was just wondering why."

"Why not." He replied turning to look up the hall "Any casualties?"

"None that we can see." replied Dumbledore "Several have serious wounds, but nothing that a night in Hospital Wing won't solve."

As Adam sheaved his sword, he saw a black cloak move out of the corner of his eye spinning towards the movement he was just in time to see a not so unconscious Death Eater raise its wand towards Dumbledore.

"Ava...." he began before getting cut off as Spike punched him in the face.

"Arr....Hey?" began Spike, clutching his hand to his head before realising that we was not in fact in pain, which got the attention of the rest of the Scoobies.

"Why aren't you in pain?" asked Anya as she attempted to reattach herself to Snape who was far more concerned with Spike.

"Of course." said Anne as it dawned on her "The chips electronic, electricity doesn't work inside Hogwarts."

"You mean he's no longer neutered?" asked Anya.

"I was never bloody neutered!!" Spike replied sharply, before anyone could say any more the main doors exploded, throwing shards of wood and dust into the hall.

When the dust cleared Harry, Fleur and Dawn could be seen in the doorway looking more than a little surprised.

Harry surveyed the scene before him.

"I think we missed the party."

"Just." commented Buffy as she and Anne ran to embrace a very shocked Dawn.

Walking towards them remains of the door Dumbledore surveying the damage.

"I think you overdid the magic a bit Harry."

"I have to disagree Headmaster," Harry replied in shock "Fleur and I have been throwing spells at that door since the Death Eaters sealed it....we only succeeded in damaging the stone work....It was Dawn who destroyed the door."

All eyes turned to Dawn who looked like she was scared to move and looking at the destruction around her was not surprising.

"It was very effective though." Harry commented to a now shaking Dawn.

"Dawn....it's ok." Buffy reassured her.

"She's right," Anne chuckled "It's perfectly normal round here."

Dawn grinned uncertainly, she'd always wanted to be able to do magic but this was just scary.

"Is everyone accounted for?" Adam asked while checking on the injured.

"The Heads of Houses are doing head counts as we speak." Dumbledore replied.

"Wait." Harry said looking around frantically "Where are Ron, Hermione, Draco and Ginny?"

The others all immediately began scanning the hall.

"Shit."

________________________________________________________________________

Ginny and Draco threw themselves to the ground as curses flew over their heads.

Draco rolled over covering Ginny while drawing his wand and turning to face the Death Eaters.

"You can't win boy."

"Maybe not, but I'm going to give it a dam good try." Draco sneered back, catching sight of the black shadow that rose out of the forest and began silently gliding towards them.

"Tell me boy, how do you plan on battling all of us at once?"

"Well....a good start would be a distraction."

A roar split the air as Sapphire dived over the heads of the Death Eaters, causing them to spin around and most to dive for cover before she disappeared up into the sky.

"And that will do nicely....INCENDIO!!"

Lucius being slightly smarter than the average Death Eater was ready for the attack and easily deflected it, but unfortunately Ginny's wasn't slow to react, she threw a ball of flame immediately after Draco's spell not giving him enough time to raise another shield.

Malfoy senior's robes ignited engulfing him in fire.

"PUT IT OUT, PUT IT OUT, PUT IT OUUUUUUTTTTTT!!"

The other Death Eaters scrambled to their feet, most pointing their wands skywards in case the dragon attacked again, only a couple were in any real rush to douse the flames leaving Malfoy seniors robes charred and very wet.

He spun round to face Draco and Ginny who were intelligent enough to take advantage of the diversion and had started running and were now half way across the lawn.

"GET THEM!!"

Curses flew across the grass aiming for the rapidly shrinking pair.

Draco and Ginny ducked as spells flew over the pair's heads.

"Thank Merlin Potter's Dragon showed up." Breathed Draco

"Thank Merlin we can run fast." Ginny returned.

"And thank Merlin these guys can't aim. Come on, only another two hundred meters."

"You would think someone would have noticed we'd have left by now."

"Yeah," Draco panted "Where's the bloody cavalry?"

"You mean other than the Dragon."

"It doesn't count."

"You mean she doesn't count."

"This is not the time to start debating what constitutes an 'it' and what constitutes a 'she' or 'he'."

A lucky spell caught Draco's ankle, cracking the bones.

"AARRGGHH!!" he cried as his leg folded under his weight.

"Draco!" Ginny cried skidding to a halt.

"WHERE IS THE BLOODY CAVALRY!!"

"Not coming boy," Lucius sneered catching up with his downed son "You think they will ever care for you, you're the enemy....a Malfoy....a...."

"Good man." a voice spoke, exuding power with each letter; it seemed to emanate from all around them though the source was behind the Death Eaters.

The Death Eaters spun around wands drawn to face someone they would later much prefer not to have met.

And boy was Hermione pissed.


	107. CH107 A Shocking Turn Of Events

Chapter 107 – A Shocking Turn Of Events

FLASHBACK

_Dimension:563 – Earth_

_Date:Unknown_

_Country:Unknown_

_Location:Unknown_

_Time:An Eternity In A Second_

"You really do choose the worst locations to train in!!" yelled Harry as he flicked his soaking wet hair out of his face for the third time.

A flash of lightning illuminated the cliff they were standing on, lighting up the heavy clouds rolling overhead.

"I could hardly teach you to channel lightning on a sunny beach could I." replied Adam, equally wet, even good water Elemental skills would have had trouble deflecting the amount of water the storm was throwing at them.

"Well come on then, what do I do?" Harry sighed, accepting that he was not going to leave until he was completely and utterly drenched.

"We will start with electricity," began Adam "As you know electricity is not very compatible with magic, which is why nothing electrical works around Hogwarts, but there is a type of electricity that does and that is called Electromagic. It follows most of the same rules as normal electricity except that magic can overwrite some of its standard properties, for example making it flow through a space with no conductive material there for it to pass down."

Turning away from the cliff he breathed deeply before throwing his hand forward, blue electricity left from his spread finger tips and impacted a nearby rock before a slight adjustment of his arm redirected the electricity towards a nearby shrub which caught alight before quickly being doused by the torrential rain falling down upon them.

"Electromagic can easily be directed and will flow where you direct it, this makes it relatively safe to use when compared to lightning especially as it moves at about the same speed as a standard spell and as such is easier to manage. Being hit by a discharge of Electromagic is like receiving an electric shock and if you are trained it won't hurt you much at all as you will be able to directly control the electricity that hits you, either sending it to the ground avoiding your major organs or releasing it into the air where it will dissipate. Prolonged exposure is not recommended of course as a continuing electric shock is very dangerous for you, even a short one which you were not expecting can cause serious damage. Lightning unlike Electromagic is extremely dangerous; it comes in magic and non-magic forms. The non-magic form comes straight from the sky and should only be interfered with as a last resort and the magical kind is created by separating charges in the air then directing them away from you. Unlike Electromagic it is not a simple flow of electrons which you can direct, it is one of the most powerful forces a wizard can wield, if you get hit by a discharge and you aren't ready for it you won't just be hurt, you will probably be dead as it's a much greater force hitting you in a fraction of a second, though luckily for the person on the receiving end of the bolt, if the sender is creating the lightning themselves rather than channelling it you have a few seconds while they are creating the charge before it is released."

Turning to the cliff he steadied himself again.

"If you want to deliberately channel lightning you usually need to give it a path to follow as otherwise it will just follow the shortest route to earth, this can usually be done by following a path of magic or Electromagic back to you, thusly:"

Looking upwards at the sky he created a sphere of what appeared to be Electromagic in his hard, extending his other hand skyward he straightened his fingers and closed the gaps between them before launching the electric sphere skyward.

A split second later a bolt of lightning leapt to his up stretched hand, it was so bright that Harry flinched away from it, in a snap motion Adam spun around and pointed his other hand towards a point on the ground several dozen feet away, the lightning flashed from his spare hand and impacted the ground where he had been pointing leaving a heavy charred patch of grass with several lingering flames around the edge.

"What do you think?" he asked.

"Shocking."

END FLASHBACK

________________________________________________________________________

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date:31__st__ October 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Quidditch Pitch_

_Time:Late Evening_

Hermione and Ron had been wandering around the school grounds and had ended up sitting in one of the top boxes of the Quidditch Pitch, Hermione leaning against Ron's shoulder.

"I've had a wonderful evening, thank you Ron."

"My pleasure....Shouldn't we be heading back, people will be wondering where we are."

Hermione sighed in disappointment.

"Probably." she said lifting her head up to kiss Ron.

"Or we could stay here a bit longer." he said eagerly when the kissed was over.

She giggled "No your right, we should be heading back or we will be missed."

They both stood and started walking down the stairs and out of the Stadium.

"I need a good night's sleep; I have a training session with Adam tomorrow."

"Good luck."

"Thank you." she replied pecking his cheek.

"No....thank you."

She stopped and turned to him.

"What for?"

"For being you." he replied smiling at her.

"Ron," she gasped, her hand going to her chest in shock "That is the nicest think anyone has ever said to me."

Tears started building in the corner of her eyes.

She stood up on her toes and kissed him passionately on the lips, his arms came around engulfing her in his strong grip, her small arms went around his neck as his rested on her upper and lower back pulling her closer.

The sound of curses being fired distracted the pair.

They spun around and saw a mass of black cloaks in the distance.

"That doesn't look good." Hermione commented before the pair ran at the mass of cloaks who were also running after someone whilst firing curses.

"Quickly, we need to see who they're after; whoever it is going to need our help."

The couple ran as fast as they could to catch up with the Death Eaters who were at least one hundred meters away.

The Death Eaters slowed to a stop.

They had obviously hit whoever it was they were chasing.

Hermione would not be happy if it was a student, especially as that little run had caused her to damage her beautiful dress.

They slowed to approach the Death Eaters stealthily; they could now see who had been caught.

It was Ginny and Draco. Now she was mad. Oh boy did they choose the wrong people to pick on.

She could feel the magic building in her, Adam's magic, powerful magic, godly magic.

Magic that makes you feel omnipotent.

Ron backed away slightly, Hermione was exuding power.

"You think they will ever care for you." the familiar voice of Lucius Malfoy taunted "You're the enemy....a Malfoy....a...."

"Good man." she interrupted.

The entire host spun on them wands drawn.

"It's the Mudblood, kill her." Lucius ordered.

Curses leapt form wands.

Ron attempted to throw himself in front of Hermione but a gesture of her hand magically held him back.

Hermione could feel time begin to slow, the sensations building up.

This time they would not overcome her, she would overcome them, she would control them, but it wasn't her who was controlling the magic's.

She saw the magic gathering in each wizard; moving down their arms, through their wands, erupting in bolts of colour.

The spells crawled towards her as she struggled to control the magic.

She couldn't hold on much longer, the magic was too strong, as if it had a mind of its own.

She felt her consciousness being pushed back, no violently but firmly, she was being suppressed by a strength from within herself that was not her own.

She was losing.

A presence appeared in her mind, it didn't so much as speak but the words appeared.

_Take control Hermione._

The words came from everywhere and nowhere.

_I can't _she replied.

_Yes you can. You can defeat them._

The voice reassured her, it was familiar she just couldn't place it.

_Take control._

She forced against the strength, regained focus, raking back the control of the magic at her command, once again seeing the slow movement of the curses herself rather than through someone else's eyes.

The magic came under her control, pulsing, cursing through her.

Now let's show these Death Eaters how to fight.

________________________________________________________________________

Draco and Ginny stared at Hermione in awe.

In under a second her face went from angry, to panicked, on to strained and then to venomous.

She was hovering about two inches of the ground; her eyes had turned pure white.

They could recognise the signs of some very powerful magic about to be unleashed and Merlin help any Death Eaters that got in her way.

As one the Death Eaters fired, their spells tearing towards her.

"HERMIONE!!" Ginny screamed in warning.

Hermione's arm raised, her wand lay discarded on the floor where she had dropped it.

The spells slowed down, coming to a halt immediately in front of Hermione's hand.

"What in Merlin's name?" Draco exclaimed.

"KEEP FIRING!!" Lucius ordered.

The Death Eaters tried again firing spell after spell towards Hermione all of which came to a stop in front of Hermione.

The air in front of Hermione was full of the coloured balls of magic that were the Death Eaters spells.

Hermione's arm lowered.

"IS THAT ALL YOU HAVE GOT." She spoke, her voice echoing around them though she didn't appear to be talking any louder than normal.

The invulnerability was beginning to spread fear in the hearts of the Death Eaters; they started backing up, away from the hovering witch.

Draco and Ginny quickly shuffled out of the way, luckily avoiding getting trampled.

"MY TURN."

Her arm shot out, throwing the curses in front of her back at the Death Eaters

Draco and Ginny ducked as several curses that missed shot over their heads.

"Hey, watch it Granger."

The spells crashed into the Death Eaters throwing most of them to the ground, the few spells that missed wheeled around and came flying back at the Death Eaters that were still standing, finishing them off.

Draco rolled over to Ginny who he had shielded when they fell.

"Are you alright?"

She looked up smiling.

"Yeah, but next time you want to annoy your father can he be under a body bind."

Draco laughed; he leaned down to kiss Ginny but was pulled out of the romantic moment by Ron's voice.

"Hermione....Hermione its ok you can stop now."

They spun around to see Hermione still hovering above the ground but this time looking more frantic.

Magic started discharging from her randomly, in the form of bluish white electricity.

"Hermione?" Ron questioned uncertainly approaching her carefully.

Hermione spun to him panicked.

A bolt of electricity erupted from her striking him in the chest and throwing him back several feet he lay on the ground groaning.

"RON!!" Ginny cried running to her brother, unfortunately her movement caught Hermione's attention, another bolt flew at Ginny but caught Draco in the chest as he threw himself in front of Ginny.

"DRACO!!"

Bolts started discharging every half a second creating numerous burn marks on the grass.

"Help me!!" Hermione cried out, her voice no longer echoing as it had before "I can't control it!!"

Clouds started forming in the sky above Hermione; bolts of lightning began dancing down around her, connecting to the sphere of electricity that was beginning to swirl around her, each one intensifying the electric cage preventing them from reaching her.

Ginny was getting frantic, she had to stop this or Hermione could get hurt.

She raised her wand.

"Sorry Hermione....Stupefy."

The spell flew at Hermione but several bolts of electricity converged on the spell absorbing the energy of the curse.

Ginny mentally swore, when the electricity followed the magic's path pack to her, knocking her to the ground still conscious.

What could she do now?

Hermione was now surrounded by electricity creating a cocoon of magic; there was no way to get near her and the magic around her was now spreading over a five meter radius.

She heard the sound of footfalls behind her and turned to see Adam, Buffy, Anne, Fleur, Dumbledore, Lupin, Harry, Dawn and the rest of the Scoobies running towards them.

Hermione's eyes caught sight of them and electricity flew in their direction.

It collided with Adam's rapidly raised palm and scattering into smaller bolts that dissipated in the surrounding air.

More bolts were sent their way each collided with Adam's hand and dissipated in the same manner.

"Harry, your assistance please." Stated Adam, his voice strained as another bolt hit his palm "Yours too Brian if you know what to do."

The rest of the party stood helpless they didn't know what to do as Harry rushed forward, one of his hands catching a bolt of electricity before redirecting it out of his other hand towards a safe area of ground. Dumbledore also joined them; armed with his wand he used his palm to receive the shocks and his wand to direct the discharges.

"Adam....help me." Hermione begged from within the nearly complete sphere.

The electricity in Adam's hand stopped scattering and began to build into a ball of white crackling light.

In a brief gap between bolts while Harry and Dumbledore were holding off the electricity, Adam threw the Electromagic he had gathered back at Hermione.

As before bolts erupted from Hermione and collided with the ball but Adam having thrown so much Electromagic overpowered the defences allowing a major part of the ball to collide with Hermione's Electromagic cocoon, creating a hole.

Adam took a running leap and launched himself over the gap through the hole tackling Hermione to the floor.

Upon contact with Hermione the energy dissipated, disappearing like smoke in a breeze, the clouds above also began to break up.

They lay exhausted on the floor.

Adam heaved himself up on to his elbows and turned Hermione over, she was unconscious.

"How is she?" asked Tara dropping to her side as the rest of the group ran over and examined the unconscious others.

"She's fine, she's just resting."

Adam slowly got to his feet picking Hermione's up as he went, he turned to Dumbledore who was surveying the scene with a sigh.

"Looks like the Ministry is going to owe us for capturing some Death Eaters for them."


	108. CH108 Legislation

Chapter 108 – Legislation

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date:3__rd__ November 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – England_

_Location:London – Ministry Of Magic_

_Time:Late Morning_

"So why did Hermione end up surrounded by electricity?" asked Tara as she, Adam and several others seated themselves in the Public Gallery of the Wizengamot.

"It's a basic defence mechanism," Adam explained "My power balances out its self-defence and the ability to control the magic, I have full control so I receive no help from my magic unless I am incapacitated in some way, Hermione though does not so she had a significantly higher amount of assistance from the magic itself, though in a rather basic form. For the brief moments that she was able to control it the magic's self defence mechanism turned off as she was able to wield the power herself, but as soon as she had defeated the Death Eaters she could no longer control it, but as she had already done so the magic itself did not immediately react and power down. The Electromagic would have dissipated eventually when the magic realised she was no longer in control but it would have taken a while and there was too high a risk of someone getting hurt."

"I heard a voice in my head when the magic was starting to break free," added Hermione "Was that the magic?"

"I'm afraid I cannot help you with that one Hermione, the magic has never spoken to me with a voice, perhaps that is something unique to you....Ah, it looks like they are about to start."

________________________________________________________________________

As Harry, Neville and McGonagall seated themselves for the unexpected Wizengamot meeting they were more than a little wary as to the cause of the summons, they knew that Fudge had called the meeting to get some new laws passed but that was it, but knowing Fudge it couldn't be good.

"I call this, the nine hundredth and fifty seventh meeting of the Wizengamot to order." Began Dumbledore "Thank you. As I'm sure you know we are now sealed from the outside world and the doors will not be opened for anything less than a national emergency. Before we turn to the agenda, are there any petitions from the public?"

No one spoke.

"Very well, Minister Fudge, you requested that this meeting be called to pass some new legislation."

The Minister, who had a confident look about him stood and moved to the centre of the room.

"I did Chief Warlock; I wish to put forward the Anti-Terrorism Bill to be accepted as Wizarding law."

"Anti-Terrorism Bill?" questioned Neville quietly.

"Why do I somehow doubt that this is actually going to prevent terrorism of any kind?" added Harry.

"Because Mr Potter you are very perceptive." Replied McGonagall.

"The Bill states new guidelines to help deal with the threat from You-Know-Who." Continued Fudge "Section One: A magical curfew will go into effect in all major Wizarding areas, this curfew will forbid anyone from using the named areas between the hours of nine in the evening and six in the morning."

"You what?" Harry whispered.

"The most prominent of these locations include the street of Diagon Alley, the streets of Hogsmeade, The Ministry and Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft And Wizardry, only those witches and wizards with Ministry approved reasons may be excused this, they will include such roles as on duty Aurors or Law Enforcement Officers as well as witches and wizards that work night shifts at their places of work or whose working hours include hours within the curfew, also excluded will be senior Ministry personnel."

"He's gone completely mad." Added Neville.

"The curfew will work on two levels; the first is a witch or wizard being caught out after the commencement of the curfew which will mean an immediate arrest and a one month imprisonment in Azkaban, the second will be a person using magic in aforementioned areas after curfew which will result in a minimum of four months imprisonment in Azkaban."

The noise level in the room had been getting slowly louder since he had started talking, if it were not for his soronus charm Fudge would have been drowned out.

"The next point involves using magic in public places. Section Two: No magic is to be used in the locations mentioned in Section One at anytime except by Law Enforcement and Ministry approved personnel, breaking this law will result in one month's imprisonment in Azkaban."

"Are we sure he's not a Death Eater?" asked Harry leaning towards McGonagall "Because he handing the country to Voldemort on a silver platter."

"We do not believe so but I agree; these new laws are absolutely ridiculous."

"Section Three: Aurors and Law Enforcement Officers are to start working double shifts and will be stationed at aforementioned locations, numbering no less than ten at each of the outside locations and no less than twenty at the Ministry and at Hogwarts."

"He's doing it again." Sighed Neville "He's trying to take control of Hogwarts AGAIN."

"Section Four: Hogwarts."

"Yep, he is." Harry agreed "This should be good."

"Prefect and teacher night patrols will be replaced by Auror patrols, no student will be permitted in the corridors after six in the evening and no teacher after six thirty, this curfew will be in effect until six in the morning. Any detentions that would require students to be out after this time will take place under the supervision of Ministry official placed in charge of the Aurors at Hogwarts."

"Here's your starter for ten everyone," began Harry "Who could that possibly be."

"Dolores Umbridge."

"Oh not again." Neville groaned.

"Couldn't you see it coming?" asked Harry.

"I did have a dreadful hunch that that was what he was going to say, I was just trying to be optimistic."

"It's going to be up to us to talk everyone in the room around," added McGonagall "I have a dreadful feeling that the Neutrals are going to be on the Ministers side."

"Do you know what makes it worse?" Continued Harry.

"What?"

"I get the feeling that we are going to spend so much time preventing the rest of that Bill being accepted that we are not going to be able to talk the Wizengamot out of sending Umbridge back to Hogwarts."

"Then we will have to make it harder for her." Finished Neville almost scowling.

"That concludes the contents of the Anti-Terrorism Bill." Finished Fudge smugly "I put it to the Wizengamot for acceptance."

"Thank you Minister," began Dumbledore who was obviously equally as worried about the new Bill "Anyone who wishes to stand and speak for or against the proposed bill can now do so."

The room was already full of noise but like last time Parkinson was first on his feet and speaking, causing the others to go temporarily silent.

"I agree with the Minister's proposals, the defence of the realm must take president over all else, we must do all we can to prevent the wrong people from trying to take control of the country."

"Do you think he meant us?" asked Neville as many of the Pure-Blood and of Fudges groups cheered.

"Well he certainly didn't mean Voldemort."

A witch on the other side of the room stood.

"I think the Minister could not be more wrong about these proposed laws, they would turn Great Britain into a police state, controlled by marshal law preventing any form of freedom for the witches and wizards of this country."

There was more cheering before Director Bones stood.

"I agree with both the previous opinions to an extent, we must defend Britain but not at the cost of the freedom of the British people." There were sounds of agreement from many others "And imprisoning someone for a month in Azkaban simply because they forgot to look at their watch is to say the least extreme."

More sounds of agreement followed Amelia's statement as Fudge stood.

"Perhaps Madam Bones would be more inclined to accept these new laws if we were to make the punishments a little less 'extreme'?"

"Possibly so." Replied Amelia, looking directly at the Minister "But that is not the only flaw with the new laws, forcing all my personnel to pull double shifts is only going to result in exhaustion amongst their numbers, meaning they will be less effective and less able when they are needed. Also stationing that large a number of Aurors around Hogwarts, the Ministry, Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade would severely inhibit the abilities of my department and having that many Aurors in board daylight will make them all the easier to target. As soon as Death Eaters appear all they need to do is shoot at the places they know the Aurors are located in and they will have an advantage right from the start."

"Your Aurors should be ready for such an attack," countered Parkinson "If they are unable to react quickly enough they obviously do not have enough training."

Quite a few members agreed but the majority thought best to remain quiet at that statement.

"Are you seriously suggesting Parkinson," started Moody, his gravelly voice gaining everyone's attention "That an Auror who is working a double shift of twelve hours guard duty followed by another four hours of doubled other duties and has been doing that for a week if not much longer should be so sharp that he or she is able to react within half a second at any point during aforementioned twelve hour shift to an attack upon the exact position he or she is standing in as he has been patrolling along it for all of the last week? I'm not that good Parkinson, not even Unspeakables are that good Baron, I would like to see you try it."

There were a few chuckles as Parkinson seated himself, his argument having been completely shot down.

"And as for their training Parkinson, myself and several other former Aurors have been teaching them and need I remind you of the achievements of my career, including if memory serves more than one illegal item in the possession of your father."

Parkinson's went to counter but Dumbledore got their first.

"We are going off subject back to the subject at hand, I for one wish to speak out against proposed plans for Hogwarts, the schools defences are easily sufficient to ward of an attack on anything less than a mass scale and should that occur the teachers and myself would be able to hold the Death Eaters off until such time as the Aurors were able to arrive."

"With great respect to the Chief Warlock," began Fudge "Need I remind this assembly that Hogwarts has been attacked no less than three times since the end of the last school term, one of which resulted in several student deaths."

"That attack took place against Hogsmeade which as I am sure the Minister is well aware is outside of the Hogwarts wards, and both the other two attacks that were able to penetrate the wards were easily repelled, the second time just a few days ago resulting in several Death Eaters captured, I will also remind the Minister that after each attack the wards were strengthened, to penetrate them now would take a lot of power so much in fact that the wards would be brought down resulting in a massive magical discharge that the detectors in the DMLA which would trigger an automatic Auror response."

"But if the Aurors were already on site there would be less chance of the Death Eaters even penetrating the wards and with fully fledged Aurors patrolling the corridors as opposed to under trained students. If one were to be able to bypass the wards it would prevent many deaths if the Aurors were already there to provide detection, the same applies to the Ministry, if a larger Aurors presence were stationed at the several entrances then there would be less chance of them gaining access to this building."

Fudge settled for a moment to let the Ministry employers amongst the Wizengamot appreciate this point but luckily McGonagall was not prepared to wait.

"I am curious, is the Minister seriously suggesting that the staff of Hogwarts including the Headmaster, who is considered the most powerful wizard of our age throughout much of the Wizarding World, are not to be permitted to move about the school?"

"Certainly, there have been several breaches of security as regards the Professors of Hogwarts, Professor Quirrell breached the security around the Philosophers Stone and Barty Crouch Junior going an entire year disguised as Lord Moody are just two that I could name."

"Are you able to name a third Minister?" continued McGonagall pausing briefly but not really long enough for Fudge to answer "Quirrell had been in that position at the school for many years before succumbing to Voldemort and Lord Moody, who I hope will not mind me saying this is a very private, cautious and slightly paranoid person, the only person at the school who knew him well was the Headmaster and considering the fact that he had been attacked shortly before the start of the school term any unusual habits or character traits could be explained by additional caution on his part."

As she finished Neville stood.

"May I add to Lady McGonagall's words and point out that by including Lord Dumbledore in the patrol exclusion he is suggesting that the Headmaster of Hogwarts, Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, Chief Warlock of this assembly and Order of Merlin First Class is in some way not to be trusted."

"Oh, nice broadside Neville." Whispered Harry, grinning internally.

"I...." attempted Fudge "I, of course not, but no one is beyond the reach of You-Know-Who, if it were possible for him to force Lord Dumbledore under the Imperius Curse then it would be extremely dangerous."

"Do you realise Minister," continued Harry "That by saying that 'no one is beyond Voldemort's reach' that that statement also applies to you as well."

The hall immediately filled with chatter, both at the implications of both of their words and at shock that someone had actually said them to Fudge.

"Just what are you suggesting Potter?" asked Parkinson "Are you suggesting that the Minister of Magic is under the control of You-Know-Who?"

"No," Harry replied calmly "But to me the idea that the most powerful wizard of our time both in magical strength and political power, the defeater of Grindelwald himself and a master Occlumens is under Voldemort's control is even less likely and if the Minister doubts the strength of mind of the Hogwarts staff I would suggest testing the Occlumency skills and to be doubly sure temporarily suspending the laws against casting Unforgivables and subjecting both the staff of Hogwarts and important Ministry personnel to the Imperius Curse."

Again the hall filled with noise, with roughly an equal split between those who were outraged by the idea and were astonished that The Boy-Who-Lived had suggested it and those who thought it was brilliant and wondered why it had never been thought of before.

"Absolutely not!!" shouted Fudge "We cannot allow Unforgivables to be cast on Ministry personnel."

"It seems a perfectly reasonable request Minister." Replied Madam Bones "I for one would willingly subject myself to such tests providing that the caster was trust worthy."

"Would I be an acceptable examiner?" Growled Moody.

"Certainly Lord Moody, as a former Auror and a highly distinguished one at that I would accept being tested by you."

"As would I." agreed Dumbledore.

"And I." McGonagall and Harry replied simultaneously.

"It's out of the question!!" bellowed Fudge "There will be no Unforgivables cast in this room and senior Ministry personnel cannot be screened using Occlumency as any gaps in their skills would no doubt result in confidential or secret information being revealed to those who are not permitted to know."

"We shall put it to the vote." Announced Dumbledore.

________________________________________________________________________

Three votes were conducted; the first fell on the Ministers side, preventing testing using the Imperius. The second excluded the Minister and the Ministry officials from having the Occlumency skills tested (notably quite a few Ministry personnel where in favour of the testing) and the last permitted testing of the Hogwarts staff by Amelia Bones and stopped those that did not pass from being excluded from the curfew, permitting only those with adequate Occlumency skills from being allowed to join the patrols.

The various arguments were raised for and against the bills again afterwards, resulting in the imprisonment time for being caught out after curfew being dropped to a week in the Ministry's holding cells, the punishment for being caught casting magic in said places being dropped to a month in the Ministry's holding cells with a second occurrence resulting in a month in Azkaban with each subsequent occurrence doubling the sentence.

The Auror double shift vote was passed as were unfortunately the Hogwarts votes with the exception of the condition that any student breaking the curfew would be subject to the punishments of the school not the Ministry. Fortunately they were able to argue that given Umbridge's incompetence at teaching she was to have no control over the running of the school, no jurisdiction to hand out punishment to students and that all detentions held in her presence where also to take place in the presence of a pair of Aurors.

But regardless of that, they had to face facts.

Umbridge was coming back to Hogwarts.

___________________________________________________________________________

AUTHORS NOTE: This is just a short thank you to all those of you who review this story. Also I would like to ask all who are reading this if you have any suggestions or plot ideas for chapters that could be included in this story, I know where this story is heading but that does not mean it can't take the scenic route to get there.


	109. CH109 Lust

Chapter 109 - Lust

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date:4__th__ November 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Quests Common Room_

_Time:Late Morning_

"I still cannot believe that we get Umbitch back." Sighed Ron.

"I'm sorry Ron, there was nothing we could do to stop it," Harry replied whilst Fleur sat on his lap "Fudge gave us so many things to oppose that I am afraid having Umbridge here was the least dangerous of all his proposed measures."

"I still can't believe your Wizard mop thing actually agreed to those laws you told us about," added Buffy "It's like big brother but for an entire country."

"The Wizarding population of one anyway." Agreed Anne.

The younger Scoobies, teachers and friends were gathered in the Scoobies Common Room as it was probably the most comfortable room in the castle that was private and big enough to hold everyone.

"It does suck big time." Agreed Anya "Imagine having to close your shop by law because people weren't allowed to enter it, its barbaric."

As the clock chimed twelve Xander and Spike stretched and stood.

"I don't know about you lot, but I'm hungry?"

"Is there ever a time when you are not." Spike replied.

"Watch it fangless."

"Not fangless anymore remember."

There had been some discussion about whether it was still safe to have Spike around and it was agreed that he would be watched more closely but other than that he would be allowed the same access to the school as before.

Ignoring the little bickering match Ron, Hermione, Anya, Anne and Buffy all stood and follower Xander off towards the Great Hall.

"I'll be in the Library if anybody feels like sparring." Stated Spike before turning and heading towards the door.

"Wait." Called Willow as she Tara and Colette all stood "Were coming to, I found this book all about the Wizarding View on Wiccan Magic but I already have so many books out I am not allowed to take it out of the Library."

"Well come on then." He sighed turning and holding the door open for them as they filed out.

"Do you think we should have gone after Hermione and told her that they were going to the Library?" asked Neville.

"No," grinned Harry "She spends far too much time there as it is. But before we get too settled I think that now would be a good time to give Dawn some more spell training."

"Actually lunch sounds like a good idea." The brunette in question replied making a bolt for the door, only to be stopped as Tonks sent a spell at it which prevented it from opening.

"Whose side are you on?" Moaned Dawn as she struggled with the door.

"The boy wonders over there." the currently blue haired woman grinned.

"You need to learn to control your powers." Agreed Fleur.

"Tell you what," smiled Tonks "If you can open that door without atomizing it we won't try to teach you."

"No fair." Groaned the brunette who was now trying to use her foot and the wall for leverage.

"Come on Dawn." Smiled Harry standing as Fleur moved off his lap "We'll go to the ROR so that you have no one to hurt but us. You coming beautiful?"

"You're a better practical teacher than I am."

"Oh the fun I could have with that statement." Chuckled Tonks, receiving a glare from Harry before he unsealed the door, making sure he had a hold of Dawn first.

"Come on Dawn, it will be easy."

"And then there were four." Smiled Tonks, look around the room at Fleur, Neville and Luna "Whatever shall we do."

________________________________________________________________________

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date:4__th__ November 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Adam's Tower_

_Time:Noon_

Up in his tower Adam was still updating his book, so much had happened in such a short space of time, it was taking him quite a while to write it all down.

As he finished a page and turned to the next he keeled forward in pain.

His head exploded in pain, it felt like it had been hit with a sledge hammer.

Something was seriously wrong.

________________________________________________________________________

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date:4__th__ November 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Dumbledore's Office_

_Time:Late Morning_

Up in the Headmasters rooms one of his instruments started to violently vibrate, wailing out a warning.

"Quick, get Albus!!" Shouted one of the portraits.

________________________________________________________________________

On the way down to the Great Hall Ron, Hermione, Anya, Xander and the Buffy twins where stopped in their tracks when a red wall of light past down the corridor, seemed to linger on their position for a moment before continuing on.

"What in the name of all that's Magical was that?" exclaimed Buffy.

"I have no idea." Anne replied "But I bet you it won't be good, guys lets go and find...."

She was cut off as she heard two thumps causing both of them to turn around.

Pressed against the wall behind them were Ron and Anya who were being held there by Hermione and Xander whilst participating in very energetic and frenzied make out sessions and it looked like it was rapidly going to progress further.

"What the hell are you doing?" Buffy exclaimed.

The four ignored her, hands and lips covering every bit of exposed flesh.

"Something magical is going on." Stated Anne.

"Xander!! Anya!!" tried Buffy pulling on the formers shoulder causing the pair to temporarily disengage.

Both of them glared at her through glowing red eyes.

"Go away." Growled Anya before shoving her away and going back to what they were doing.

"Oh yeah, definitely magical." Agreed Buffy.

The pairs separated briefly as Hermione and Xander ripped their partner's shirts open, exposing Ron's bare chest and Anya's black lace bra.

"If we don't do something quick this is going to get seriously adult rated," said Anne "And as much as Anya may like the idea I am pretty sure the other three especially Ron and Hermione would burn with humiliation and embarrassment."

"We have to break them up." Agreed Buffy.

"You knock out the guys, I will stun the girls." Replied Anne as she drew her wand and shot a stunner at Hermione who slumped to the floor.

Ron, looking rather wild looked down at Hermione before his attention turned to Anne.

"Ohhhh dear." she muttered as Ron began moving towards her.

Turning she only managed one step before he caught her and pressed her against the other wall, her hands pinned above her head.

"Buffy, helMMMM." Was all she managed before his lips descended on her.

The kiss only lasted a few seconds before she felt the shock of Ron being punched in the head before slumping to the ground, the red light fading from his eyes as he lost consciousness.

"Thank you." She breathed at Buffy as they surveyed the scene "He might not be too bad on the eyes but I never wanted to kiss him."

"What the hell just happened?"

"I have no idea." She replied "But let me repair the ripped bits of clothing then I recommend that we get them into a classroom and lock them in there."

"Agreed, then go and find the others."

________________________________________________________________________

Several floors away Harry pushed Dawn up against the wall as the red light turned down the end of the corridor and continued on through the school.

They only stayed that way for a few seconds before Dawn spun them round and pushed Harry up against the wall before moving his hands down onto her arse.

"God I want you." Breathed Harry in between kisses.

"What about Fleur?" she asked as she un-tucked his shirt and ran her hands up under it, neither noticing the red light in each other's eyes.

"Fleur's not here." He replied "I know a better place to do this."

"Yeah." Dawn gasped as his hand ran up her leg to the hem of her short skirt.

"Somewhere we won't be bothered."

"Then take me there." She gasped pulling herself away from him before letting him pull her away along the corridor.

________________________________________________________________________

In the hallway Adam staggered down a corridor and found himself running alongside Dumbledore, Buffy, Anne and a rather battered Spike.

"Something very strange is happening." He commented falling into step beside them.

"You think?" Replied the Vampire "Because I would consider most of the population of the library suddenly losing all their inhibitions and having their desires maxed out perfectly normal."

"What happened?"

"I was quietly reading in the Library with Red, Glenda and the bird when this red light passed through the wall; I was about to ask what the hell had happened when the table turns over as all three of the women dive at each other and start tearing at each other's clothes."

"Sounds like what happened to us with Xander, Anya, Ron and Hermione," agreed Buffy "We've stunned them and locked them in a classroom."

"What happened to yours?" asked Buffy.

"Well, I was all for letting it continue when I notice that everyone else in the library over the age of about fourteen was similarly affected and not wanting to see a pair of kids making out I started knocking them out."

"He had managed to incapacitate everyone but Miss Rosenberg and Professor Fontanne when I arrived." Continued Dumbledore "By then they had turned their attention to him and were trying to do a combination of kissing and killing."

"Hence the burns and bruises."

"I managed to incapacitate Miss Rosenberg with a sleeping spell and had just shot a stunner at Professor Fontanne when the red glow left her eyes and she stopped her advances, she was hit by the spell but not wanting to risk more of the same we left her unconscious."

The scene that greeted the group as they passed into the Scoobies Common Room was significantly different to that which was occurring elsewhere in the school.

Neville had been knocked unconscious, presumably judging by his position from having his head whacked into the floor by either Tonks, Fleur or Luna who were tussling with each other to get at his unconscious form.

They enter just in time to see Tonks send a punch into Luna's jaw knocking her out before both she and Fleur returned to fighting each other.

"Get the others to safety." Ordered Adam "Spike and I will handle them."

"Leave the tough jobs for us." muttered the Vampire as the others moved over to Luna and Neville.

Advancing on the pair both sets of eyes snapped around as they saw Anne and Buffy begin to lift Neville off the ground.

"Ohhhh dear." Said Buffy slowly.

Both of the pair launched themselves at the Slayers, Tonks knocking Spike out with a morphed boxers sized fist as he tried to get in the way.

Back-pedalling the Slayers unfortunately ran into the sofa and were just at the wrong height as they fell backwards as Buffy's head hit the corner knocking her out.

"Oh for god sake." Cried Anne as Tonks tackled her; luckily her fist was back to its normal size as the pair flew backwards over the sofa.

Fleur began to change as she landed on Tonks back, and was about to plunge her claws into the Aurors neck when she was thrown across the room by Adam.

"Sorry Fleur, I can't let you do that."

The Veela ignores the comment and tried to reengage the struggling women.

Grabbing her ankles Adam held her back as she flapped wildly in the air.

"Can you handle Tonks by yourself?"

"Maybe, if you can keep Fleur out the way." Growled Anne as she forced Tonks hand away from her throat.

Sighing Adam gave a violent pull on Fleur's ankles, grabbing her arm and turning her to face him.

"Sorry Fleur, but this will probably be the easiest way to distract you." He whispered before touching his lips to hers.

He saw the confusion briefly in her hawk like eyes before she switched back to predatory mode as he threw her away from him and started heading for the door.

"That's it Fleur, follow the bird." He agreed as she followed after his now transforming form.

________________________________________________________________________

As Dumbledore tried to re-enter the room he was almost knocked off his feet as the doors slammed open and a familiar looking falcon dove out followed closely by a fully transformed Veela who was not worried in the slightest about damaging the school as the single remaining hinge on the door that led to the Common Room showed once she had passed through it.

Turning around he was just in time to see the pair fly around the corner, Fleur taking out several suits of armour as her large wings smashed their way along the corridor aided by leg thrusts off the wall.

________________________________________________________________________

Turning another corner Adam deliberately dived at several students walking down the corridor, forcing them to dive for cover so that they were on the floor when Fleur smashed her way around the corner, tearing great chunks of stone out of the wall with her talons as she flew over them.

That's it, just a few more meters.

Doing a sharp left he dived into an empty classroom and rapidly transformed back.

Hearing the terrible scrapping sound of Fleur's attempts to stop herself with her talons, he got back to the door as she tripped over her own wings and landed on the floor, just in time to receive his stunner.

"That was bracing."

________________________________________________________________________

Several minutes later in the Hospital Wing, all those that were controlled are in beds, Neville, Spike and Colette are conscious as were a couple of the students who were being controlled, most of them were looking very embarrassed at what they remembered. The rest were being left to come around naturally.

"The phenomenon, whatever it was occurred over the entire school," explained Dumbledore "I have heard from the Professors, ghosts and portraits that older students and adults in groups of two or more suddenly became extremely uninhibited all over the school."

"The glowing red eyes are a giveaway that this phenomenon is magical in nature, as is the fact that not all of the adults and students were affected." Agreed Giles "But why it only seemed to affect some people is still a mystery."

"Most of those who were affected seem to have been couples or people who were engaged in relationships that were close as with Miss Granger and Mr Weasley but others like Colette and Nymphadora seemed to react as well."

"Possibly Luna's feelings for Neville somehow were broadcast towards Tonks and Fleur," suggested Adam "The same with Colette, Willow and Tara."

"It's about as logical as the rest of this conjecture." Grumbled Snape, who was annoyed at being pulled away from a potion he was brewing to check the affected for poisons or drugs.

"The best description of what happened would be an extremely large lust spell," continued Giles "Except such a spell should not be possible on that level without extremely large reserves of power."

"Like James or myself." Agreed Adam "I did feel something when the spell took effect, I assumed it was something forcing its way over the wards but Albus tells me that the spell must have come from inside the school."

"This appears to be the case." agreed Dumbledore "I felt the spell impact the wards but on the inside only, the spell stopped upon contact with them."

They were distracted from their musings as the resident nurse made a sound of puzzlement.

"What is wrong Madam Pomfrey?"

"It's Professor Delacour Headmaster, unlike the others she seems to be having some sort of reaction to the spell, her body temperature is slightly higher than it should be and her heart race is increasing. I thought at first it may be related to her Veela ancestry but as Professor Fontaine is unaffected that cannot be the case. "

"Is she in any danger?" asked Adam as he moved over to the woman in question and began waving his hand over her muttering under his breath.

"I do not believe so, the reaction is similar to that of a person playing sports but as she is unconscious I can't see why that would happen."

A split second later Adam and Dumbledore's heads snapped around.

"Harry!!" they both exclaimed, realising for the first time that he wasn't present.

"Where's Dawn." Asked Giles a moments later.

"They were heading for the ROR." Mumbled Tonks as she rejoined the conscious world.

After exchanging looks Adam immediately followed by Colette, Spike and Neville all headed for the door at full pelt.

"I thought the spell had stopped!" exclaimed Madam Pomfrey as the doors banged shut after them.

"The only reason that those in here stopped is because they were stunned." Replied the Headmaster "Both Harry and Miss Summers may still be under its control."

________________________________________________________________________

Harry and Dawn almost stumbled through the door at the top of the Astronomy Tower, they had made it to the base of the tower ok but as soon as they were out of the main structure of the castle and into the narrower stairs they had slowed right down as they kept stopping to snog and feel each other up.

After the four of five minutes it had taken to actually reach the top of the tower, Harry's shirt had been ripped off and Dawn's blouse had been opened down to her stomach revealing her black bra.

"Took long enough." Panted Dawn as she moved over to the encircling wall around the top level of the tower "Now, where were we?"

________________________________________________________________________

"We need to move faster!!" shouted Colette as they spun around a corner in one of the higher corridors.

"I know Harry and the bit won't exactly be pleased about what they are no doubt doing," called Spike from where he and Neville were running slightly behind Adam and Colette "But it's not exactly going to be a disaster if we don't reach them in time."

"You don't understand," Called Colette as she kicked of a wall to change her direction down another corridor "Harry and Fleur are mated, their souls have literally been shared between them, each holds a half of the others and half of their own. It is supposed to be impossible for a Mated Veela or her Mate to be with anyone else but if Harry and Dawn do go at it, it could be fatal."

"What do you mean could be fatal?"

"I don't know, this sort of situation had never happened before, but if they climax I bet whatever the result won't be good."

________________________________________________________________________

Harry and Dawn dropped down onto the floor of the tower; Harry had just had time to conjure a scattering of cushions before they came back together and resumed their frenzied exploring.

"Enough touching." Growled Dawn "Take me, take me now!!"

"With pleasure." Smiled Harry as he reached up under her skirt and pulled down her matching black knickers.

________________________________________________________________________

Adam and Colette skidded to a halt in front of the Room of Requirements.

"Where's the door?" she demanded as Spike and Neville came to a stop behind them.

"The rooms not in use." Gasped the Gryffindor.

"He's right." agreed Adam running his hand over the wall.

"Then where are they?" Spike demanded.

Colette withdrew her wand and placed it on her palm whilst Adam closed his eyes and appeared to focus.

"Point me Harry Potter."

The wand spun around and pointed back down the corridor before the tip elevated and pointed up through the ceiling.

"The Astronomy Tower." Both replied.

"Oh that's not good." Groaned Neville as they began running again.

________________________________________________________________________

Harry groaned as Dawn ran her hand over his jeans before reaching for the zip.

"I want you now!"

________________________________________________________________________

"I can hear them now." Explained Adam as he grabbed a hold of a corner and swung himself around into the next corridor "It's not sounding good."

"We need to go faster." Exclaimed Spike, this time running level with them.

"We need to fly." Replied Colette as she and Adam began to transform.

"Déjà vu!" Whispered Adam just before he fully transformed and flew off down the corridor, Colette in hot pursuit.

________________________________________________________________________

Harry thrust forward, making Dawn gasp.

"More, More. Faster. Faster!"

________________________________________________________________________

Colette's avian form blasted through the door at the base of the tower, Adam right behind her.

________________________________________________________________________

"I'm close. Please more!"

________________________________________________________________________

Neville and Spike passed through the doors at the bottom of the tower as Adam and Colette continued spiralling upwards along the steps.

________________________________________________________________________

"Harry!! I'm....I'm....!!"

________________________________________________________________________

The pair burst through the upper most door of the tower in time to see a bright light emerge from Harry and Dawn

________________________________________________________________________

Down in the Hospital Wing Fleur sat bolt upright, a similar light emanating from her and directed into the air.

It writhed around for a moment before returning to within her as she fell back into unconsciousness.

________________________________________________________________________

Transforming back Adam looked upon the now unconscious pair.

"We were too late."

________________________________________________________________________

AUTHORS NOTE: Hello all, just a few statistics about this story that I found surprising when I read them, don't know if you will find them interesting but I thought I would add them anyway. At the end of chapter 108, this story had been published for just one month short of 3 years (May 06) and 372,931 words have gone to make up this story so far. Wow.


	110. CH110 Body & Soul

Chapter 110 - Body & Soul

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date:4__th__ November 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Staffroom_

_Time:Late Afternoon_

Late that afternoon an emergency meeting was being held in the Staffroom, all the Professors and guests were present with the exception of Harry, Fleur and Dawn who were unconscious in the Hospital Wing being kept company by Hermione and Ron. Adam had for some reason insisted that Neville and Luna were present at the meeting.

As the doors opened the final attendant walked in, the Veela Matriarch accompanied by a pair of guards that took up positions on either side of the door.

"Matriarch." Greeted Colette dropping to her knees in front of her "Thank you for coming."

"Colette." She returned politely gesturing for her to stand before looking at Dumbledore "Now would someone please tell me what has happened to the new Comtesse Delacour?"

"Certainly Matriarch," greeted Dumbledore gesturing her towards a chair before turning to the group "For those who are not aware of the exact happenings yesterday I will explain. At approximately midday a spell of unknown origin was cast within Hogwarts, this spell resulted in a portion of the schools population coming under the affect of what could best be described as a strong lust potion resulting in many of the residence trying to become intimate with each other. We believe we managed to prevent all those who were affected from doing anything they may have regretted later with the exception of Professor Summers sister Dawn and Professor Potter, both of whom along with Harry's Veela mate, the Comtesse Delacour are now unconscious in the Hospital Wing."

"When the pair in question...." continued Adam pausing slightly as he tried to think of the most appropriate word "Consummated it interfered with the mating between Harry and Fleur, having examined them all I am forced to come to the unfortunate conclusion that their souls are now split three ways."

There were gasps at his comments.

"How is that possible?" asked the Matriarch "The mating between Harry and Fleur should have prevented any interference by spells."

"This spell was extremely powerful, no normal love or lust spell would have had this affect;" he continued "A standard mating splits a soul in to two halves and exchanges one half for another from the other person, creating a fifty-fifty split. The spell being as powerful as it was overrode the binding instincts of the mating and told both Fleur and Harry to pursue others, if they had been together they would no doubt have done what most of the other couples in the school tried to do but as they were apart their attentions focused on Dawn in Harry's case and Neville then myself in Fleur's."

"But Harry isn't Veela, how could he have pulled Dawn into the mating?" asked Neville.

"Harry and Fleur are joined." Realised The Matriarch "If the mating was confused into thinking they were not together it would have accessed Fleur's ability to mate, and as they were actually connected that occurred in both of them."

"And succeeded in both of them." Added Adam.

"What do you mean?" asked the Headmaster.

"Dawn and Harry were for lack of a more appropriate word connected when the bonding occurred, Fleur was not but from what I have been told I am guessing the residual pull she had to purse a mate was still in her so when the mating was triggered in Harry it was also triggered in Fleur and though we were not physically connected and our souls aren't merged her magic will still force her to behave as though she is mated to either myself or Neville."

"What!!" exclaimed the boy in question.

"After examining Dawn, Harry and Fleur I can deduce that Harry and Fleur each have a half of each other's soul and quarter each of their own and Dawn's and that Dawn has a quarter each of Harry and Fleur's souls and half of her own."

"Wait wait wait." Called Buffy raising her hands "Let me get this straight. My sister is bound to Harry who is also bound to Fleur who is bound to you or Neville."

"Your sister will also be bound to Fleur." Added The Matriarch "They are sharing souls now, they are all bound to each other."

"Except Fleur is also bound to either myself or Neville and her Magic will want her to complete the joining and add one of our souls to the group."

"Oh Merlin." Groaned Neville as he sunk into his seat while Luna stroked his arm soothingly.

"This is a disaster." Exclaimed Xander.

"Unfortunately I am forced to agree," nodded Dumbledore "Matriarch, are you aware of any way of dissolving a soul bonding?"

"Not a way that leaves the previously mated people alive at the end no."

"I may be able to come up with a potion to separate the magical and telepathic connections and trick the magic into assuming everything is as it should be," suggested Adam "From there I may be able to call on a favour or two and switch the souls back to where they should be, but it will take a long time, I may not be able to call in the favours I need and even if I can then it may not work."

"It's the best we have." Replied Dumbledore.

"What's do we do in the mean time?" asked Luna.

"Unfortunately it means that the three that are bound and either the Professor or Neville was it? Will have to be in close contact with each other probably at least once a day." Explained the Matriarch.

"Oh Merlin." Neville exclaimed again.

"That should keep the magic in Professor Potter, Fleur and Miss Summers sated as regards each other."

"What will the uncompleted Mating do to Fleur?" asked Colette.

"She will want to complete it and it will only get worse with time if she doesn't."

"Luckily resolving Fleur's need to mate should be slightly easier." Interjected Adam "The potion that I will try and create may resolve it but also it may be possible to trick Fleur's magic into believing that either Neville are myself are not suitable to be Mates if so the magic compulsion should stop."

"How do we do that?" asked Neville eagerly.

"That I do not know, but it would no doubt involve doing something dark which I don't think either of us are willing to do. There is also one additional possible problem."

"What?" sighed Buffy, not knowing how it could get any worse.

"Dawn and Harry may also be able to feel the pull to mate through Fleur."

"You mean Harry's going to want to have sex with me?" asked Neville worriedly, his voice going an octave higher than it should be.

"No, but he will feel the pull as will Dawn but as they are not the ones connected to us then nothing they do will satisfy the magic."

"Is there anything else that can go wrong today?"

On cue the doors banged open revealing a short fat woman wearing pink flanked by a pair of Aurors.

"Umbridge." Groaned Neville.

"Oh, I haven't come at a bad time have I?"

________________________________________________________________________

It was discovered much to Neville's relief that Fleur was not magically attached to him but to Adam, something that unsurprisingly he did not appear too happy about.

Dawn and Harry were particularly shamed by what they had done despite what Buffy, Anne, Adam, Colette and a rather shocked Fleur told them.

Fleur and Harry had believed what they were told once they awoke, they could remember what had happened while they were under the spells influence and being able to feel the extra presence of Dawn in their minds and the pull on Fleur's magic connecting her to Adam was rather conclusive. Dawn on the other hand took several minutes to convince even though she remembered what they did she did not want to believe what she was being told, she had gotten quite angry about it and only when both Fleur and Harry had spoken to her in her mind and her hands had started too smoke as her anger caused her to channelled Fleur's fire Elemental abilities did she actually accept it.

All this resulted in several very quiet days as the group tried to come to terms with what had happened.

They had originally planned to just have the trio meet up once a day and spending an hour in physical contact with each other while Adam sat at the side just in contact with Fleur but after two days the trio, especially Harry and Fleur as they had only a quarter of their own souls while Dawn had a half of hers, looked decidedly weaker and more strained so it was decided that they needed more time together, resulting in Dawn moving her stuff into Harry and Fleur's rooms so she could sleep in contact with them, this obviously proved decidedly awkward for all as neither of the women were lesbians and Harry was only in love with Fleur but their magic made each of them want to be with each other and want to please each other, the magic was made all the more potent because of the unfinished bond between Adam and Fleur seeking to be completed and heightening the others desire to be intimate.

In addition to the above Fleur was also to spend at least three hours in Adam's company during the day, normally in the evening while they graded the students work but always out of the presence of Dawn and Harry as during the initial two days the former pairs magic had caused them to become aggravated by Fleur's magic being sated by Adam's contact.

All this made the group rather tetchy causing more friction around the school. Adam was spending all his free time when not in classes, with Fleur or training Hermione and Tara locked in his room researching, planning, reading ancient tombs, purchasing unusual potions ingredients and brewing with the occasional assistance from Dumbledore and Snape when he needed help preparing a particular part of the potion or planning the exact time and date to add the next ingredients.

Buffy and Anne who were feeling particularly awkward around the trio due to their sisterly instincts to protect Dawn and their sympathy for the trio due to their prior relationship with Angel had decided that they all needed cheering up and had set up an early graduation competition for the best of the MD group as regards their weapons training. About a month previously all those who had been training from the beginning had been instructed to pick out a single weapon that they preferred fighting with and had spent the last few weeks training with that weapon until they were as close to perfect with them as someone could become in a few months, it was time for a test.

________________________________________________________________________

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date:10__th__ November 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Muggle Defence Classroom_

_Time:Afternoon_

During the final MD class of the day the all the students were training furiously under the watchful eyes of Anne, Adam and the Scoobies. All the more skilled students were training with their weapons of choice whilst the other less skilled ones got drills or exercises from their teachers.

As regards choice of weapon Ron had ended up choosing the battle Axe, his superior strength allowed him to wield it very effectively. Hermione, Ginny, Dawn and Tara (as she was interested in improving her skills as well) had opted for the bow (not a crossbow) and a pair of small daggers (as Adam and the Slayers had been insistent that a bow was almost useless in hand to hand combat if you wanted it to work properly afterwards) and Neville the quarterstaff and spear (as they both could be used similarly in close combat situations).

The remaining three included Harry, Draco and surprisingly Blaise. Harry had obviously already chosen his favourite weapon back in France but he was still mastering his skills which had improved since, Draco had also been proven to be more than adept using the long sword blades while Blaise had proven already to be very skilled at using a pair of daggers, even in their very first weapons lesson. She backed these up with a very vicious looking cut-throat raiser which she had supplied herself (though no one knew exactly where from), it made every male in the room who knew what it was shudder every time she started flicking it open and closed, especially those who had heard of Sweeny Todd.

Harry had asked Draco about Blaise but unfortunately he was not able to tell him much other than she was rich, moved in 'the right' circles, that her mother had been killed during the first war and it was rumoured that Lucius had been the one that killed her though it was never confirmed duo to him being found not guilty of being a Death Eater at the time.

During one of their sparring sessions Draco had also told him a lot more about the inner working of Slytherin House that barely anyone else knew; apparently there was an ongoing feud and power struggle between the students. Roughly speaking it broke down into the children of Death Eaters with those that leaned that way and those that either didn't believe in their goals or wanted to achieve success through other means; the former group was larger and almost always consisted of the older students who grabbed the children of Death Eaters and sympathisers in their first year and made sure they only did the 'right' things and hung with the people that they should. The other group tried to do the same thing but in reverse by trying to prevent the Death Nibblers (as the group called them) from turning the first years to their way of thinking and simply warned them and providing interference between them and the Death Nibbles allowed them to gain members and remain sizable within Slytherin House. Draco had been one of those at the head of the 'Death Nibblers' group, though he had been dethroned by Pansy as soon as she saw him getting too close to the 'wrong' people, at the moment her main competition for control of the house was Blaise who was one of those in charge of the opposing group, she was one of the equally cunning and devious ones who wanted power but were not willing to bow down to someone to do it.

At that moment Blaise, Harry and Draco were standing weapons raised in a corner of the room, an area had been cleared in preparation for the upcoming sparing match the three of them versus Adam, on the other side of the room Buffy and Anne could be heard tutoring the archers on how to most effectively use a knife.

The men were wielding rapiers while Blaise stuck to her shorter thicker pair of blades. Adam was using the same style of sword as Harry and Draco's as it was in fact his second favourite variety because of the speed at which it could be moved around in close combat situations.

Adam assumed his position drawing his own rapier blades (being three versus one he needed an extra blade) and moving into a battle stance.

"Begin."

They had been practicing team work as was proved by the point that they coordinate their attacks.

The male pair moved onto ever side of Adam while Blaise remained in front of him, they all knew that Adam could easily fight them off if only one came at him (Harry had figured out that he had let him win back in the summer) and possible all together if they weren't clever so they had to out manoeuvre him.

At Draco's nod both the two guys engaged Adam on opposite sides, he began immediately moving backwards so that he was facing both but they anticipated this and focused their attacks on his back forcing him to turn around to counter them so that he returned to his original positions allowing Blaise to come in and strike at his unprotected side.

Aiming a slash at his back a rapier came over his shoulder just in time to intercept it and with a quick flick of his wrist deliver a light cut to the back of her hand.

Gasping in shock she dropped that blade which he kicked backwards before forcing her to backup so as not to run into him as he was being forced back in her direction by the others. This still resulted in Adam being surrounded on two sides until he backed flipped over Blaise and delivered a kick to her back knocking her to the ground and forcing Harry and Draco to engage him from one side again.

Changing tactics they decided to alter their fight plan, the boys had originally been using the exact same attacks but now they changed so that Adam had to counter each of them separately, every few blocks and parry Blaise, who had regained her feet would with her remaining blade attempt to strike him, distracting him from the main fight, which would hopefully allow one of them to score a hit.

They forced Adam to back into a corner, by this time most of the room had stopped to watch the battle, an unlucky diversion from Blaise resulted in her arm being pincered between two sword pommels resulting in her losing her other blade, catching the blade Adam knocked her sideways into the wall before slamming her blade into it firmly impaling her shirt. Using the opportunity while Adam was distracted removing Blaise Harry managed to make a lucky swing that knocked one of the swords from Adams hand, Draco caught the sword and started engaging Adam with both, now the Professor was again fighting three blades but this time with just one of his own. Suddenly Harry dropped to the ground swinging his leg out to trip Adam who fell to the floor losing his sword as he went, Harry grabbed the sword and all four were aimed at Adam's throat.

None of them moved for several seconds before Adam spoke.

"Well done....but there is one think you must be careful of."

"What?' asked Draco smugly as he looked down his swords at Adam.

"Where you put your feet." the Professor replied pulling his legs forward from where they had snaked their way around each of the boy's legs pulling each to the floor, he then rolled over drawing two knives from his back and bringing one to each of the boys throats, luckily the pair had remembered not to leave themselves exposed and were very quick in bringing their swords up to block the daggers.

"Good, well remembered." Adam complemented re-sheaving his daggers and pull each of the boy's to their feet before going over to release Blaise who had been getting rather aggravated at not being able to free herself "You must always beware the unexpected stroke and you did just that."

There was a round of applause from the assembled group at the trio's success, Fleur and Ginny ran to their other halves and congratulated them, Dawn also moved to Harry tough it was obvious she was struggling internally as to whether to kiss him like Fleur or just hug him.

Harry and Fleur both sent her soothing thoughts down the link to help relieve some of her turmoil, causing her to adopt a more relaxed and grateful face.

"You no longer require my training with these weapons." Adam continued "I pronounce you three Masters of the Sword and of the Blade and fully qualified in the use of your chosen weapon."

He walked to a cupboard on the wall and withdrew two swords in their chosen style with belts and sword scabbards, Buffy moved over to the same cupboard and extract a pair of shorter thick bladed knives. The sheaves on all the weapons were black with Silver highlights, each also had the person's family crests on them, Blaise's turned out to be a black crest with a silver pair of what appeared to be bat or dragon like wings.

"Do you think he let us win?" whispered Draco.

"Maybe." Replied Harry as the pair came to stand in front of them.

The pair walked back to the trio and handed them the weapons.

"These are for you." Announced Buffy.

Harry immediately recognised his sword

"This is...."

"Godric Gryffindor's yes, the Headmaster and I believe that as you are the last bearer of his title you should also bear his sword. These weapons are magical in nature and will never blunt or dull."

Something Harry also noticed was that the sword looked different, the jewels in the sword hilt were no longer oval but diamond shape and they were also a brighter shade of red.

"These are different." Harry pointed out.

"Yes, they are part of something which you once saved from Voldemort."

"The stone." Harry said looking up surprised

"Yep." nodded Buffy

"But it was destroyed." Hermione pointed out as Tara and herself walked over to examine the blades, most of the rest of the group taking that as a cue and also moved in.

"Yes and no." Adam answered before continuing at their confused looks "The stone was magically melted down and reformed, which destroyed its capacity to create the elixir of life, it now has new properties. The stones illuminate when evil is close; I have also added my own personnel touches."

He said pointing out some runes which were now carved into the blade

"It says 'Im i Dagnir ned Um, Tegi ned ha guruth' which translates as 'I am the Slayer of Evil, Harbinger of its Death'."

"I can't imagine why you choose that particular choice of wording." commented Anne as she and Buffy exchanged a look.

Adam just sent them a sly smile.

Unnoticed by the others examining the weapons, Hermione and Tara discovered that they could understand the long swirling script without Adam translating but decided not to comment on it and to bring it up at their next lesson.

"The blades now repel and burn evil, these are properties I should have included when I helped Godric make his sword."

"You made it?" asked Draco coming forward to compare his sword to Harry's as he noticed they looked remarkably similar.

"I helped design it, not to actually create it, I did the same with its twin, the sword you now wield, I searched long and hard to find it."

Looking at Draco's sword Harry realised it was identical to his own, right down to the carvings on the blade, only the name on the sword differed; Gloria Gryffindor.

"His wife, he made them as a wedding gift."

Most of the group were wondering why on earth you would give someone swords as a wedding gift, at the strange looks he was receiving he explained.

"There was a war going on at the time and swords were worn almost all the time by wizards and witches to protect against anti-witch hunts."

Turning his attention to Blaise's weapon Adam continued, most of the group turning their attention to her weapons now. The blades were about thirty centimetres in length and the handle about fifteen, the blades were best compared to those of a samurai with a thick blade with one flat and one sharp edge though obviously considerably smaller.

"These were custom made by the Goblins; they like the swords will not dull and while the sapphires in the hilt do not react to evil or repel it, the touch of the blade will still burn it."

Blaise looked up at Adam as if trying to work something out, after exchanging stares for a minute she seemed to reach some sort of conclusion before attacking her weapons to her waist.

Harry tried to question Adam about this later but Adam declined to answer.

________________________________________________________________________

Aside from school issues on the more serious war front things were not going well for the good guys, Fudges new laws were not helping them at all and Snape had informed the Order (and Tonks and Bill had informed The Alliance) that an extra twenty Death Eaters were recruited within twenty four hours of the curfew being announced, with another two dozen also likely to join.

From what they could tell judging from Snape's and other people's intelligence Voldemort was currently on a recruiting spree and was desperately bolstering the size of his forces with James supporting him all the way.

Starting with humans he had at least one hundred and fifty free Death Eaters and another hundred too two hundred wizards and witches supporting him or too scared to oppose him.

At least five hundred Dementor's but that was only a guess as no one had ever seen them all at once so it was estimated that their numbers could be as high as one and a half thousand. Also approximately thirty giants with more leaning their way, about two hundred Werewolves (two thirds the total number, one third of which had been turned around by the new legislation for their rights).

But what was worrying the Alliance and the Order most were the beasts at his command.

From what Snape had overheard of conversations with other Death Eaters or from Voldemort's own boasting he had managed to capture and subdue several Manticore's (head of a man, body of a lion and the tale of a scorpion) and chimera (lions head, goat's body and a dragon's tail), he also had discovered more Basilisks (no one knew where from) and had taken control of them. On top of that were three more recourses that made everyone's blood run cold.

According to recent reports from Charlie dragon reserves all over the world were being targeted, at least a hundred dragons had been stolen and unfortunately they could not be any worse kinds; all those stolen were either Romanian Longhorns, Hungarian Horntails or Ukrainian Ironbelly's, the former two were the most dangerous breeds of dragon left in the world and the latter the largest, these had been captured over the last two months in a series of raids that the various Wizarding governments were desperate to keep quiet, but the most terrifying heist was yet to come.

From a research lab which had been hidden deep in Congo forests a Nundu had been stolen. Nundu's or Mngwa as they were known locally are very large brindled cats about the size of a donkey, similar in shape to leopards and are native to Eastern Africa. The last time wizards had engaged one it took a team of a hundred wizards working together to bring it down.

And the icing on Voldemort's army's cake was the legions of demons and vampires loyal to James including more Batros and heaven knows what else that he could summon up.

Some good news though came as many of the remaining dragon sanctuaries either worried about attacks on their own dragon reserves or furious and wanting revenge had eagerly agreed to follow Dumbledore as soon as Charlie had suggested it, so far at least fifty dragons had been brought over to their side though unfortunately most were only Welsh Green's which as dragons go were pretty small and rather non-violent.

Charlie was currently trying to persuade more to join, he had been authorised by the Alliance Council to tell the keepers about them if joining Dumbledore wasn't convincing enough, the Council had agreed that at this point if someone had sided with Dumbledore then they were effectively on their side and they should not waste their resources trying to turn them towards supporting the Alliance.

There were a possible two hundred and fifty dragons that could be brought their way but like the Welsh Green's they were not exactly the most fearsome of dragons; Hebridean Black's, Chinese Fireballs and Antipodean Opaleye's, hopefully the sheer number of dragons would be enough to overpower those already captured.

Also on their side they had The Order, the Aurors, the majority of the residence of Hogwarts, the hundred or so Werewolves who had sided with Dumbledore, The Scoobies, the human members of the Alliance, the Centaurs, the Veela, House Elves, Goblins, Dwarves and Acromantulas who made up the Alliance fifteen thousand, not to mention a one meter eighty (and growing) Wyvern.

Additionally Angel had found a way of locating Buffy and had sent her a message saying that things were beginning to heat up over in America, both in Sunnydale and LA and that although he was holding the fort they would soon need reinforcements.

The lines were being drawn, the army's were assembling, how long would it be before they clashed.


	111. CH111 Wrath

Chapter 111 – Wrath

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date:13__th__ November 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Muggle Defence Classroom_

_Time:Afternoon_

"You're getting good with that Draco." Smiled Harry as he ducked another sword swing.

"You're not TOO bad yourself." Draco grinned back parrying Harry's return strike with his new sword.

"Not too bad." Replied Harry challengingly jumping back and away before diving back in "There is no weapon in this room that I couldn't defeat you with."

"You've been training longer than I have;" thrust "You have an advantage."

"Don't Slytherin's enjoy a challenge?" parry.

"Of course, but not one where I can't cheat." Their swords locked together and they leaned forward, each trying to overpower the other.

"If you two decide to kiss you will have at least five angry women after you." Joked Hermione from the other side of the room where she was competing against Anne, Buffy and Tara at archery.

"Five?" both questioned at the same time, jumping back and swinging again.

"Yes." Replied Ginny, bull's-eyeing another target and drawing her bow string for the next one "Fleur, Dawn, Anne, Buffy and me."

"Too right." Agreed the Slayers, both matching Ginny's shot with their crossbows before Buffy continued "So tell us more about this Umbridge woman."

There was a ricocheting sound as Ginny's next arrow missed the target and deflected off the wall at the same time as Harry sent a downward swing at Draco that suddenly became a lot more powerful, causing him to fall to the floor with Harry's sword at his neck.

"I believe I just hit a rather large nerve." Observed Buffy glancing from the arrow to Harry.

"I get the feeling that she's not best liked."Agreed Anne.

"No." growled Harry, sheaving his sword and extending his hand to pull Draco up "Sorry Malfoy."

"Don't worry about it." Replied the Slytherin sheaving his own weapon before turning to the Slayers "Umbridge is Fudge's Undersecretary, when Harry and Dumbledore started telling people that You-Know-Who was back and their popularity began to fall he sent her here as a professor, she soon became the Headmistress and Hogwarts 'High Inquisitor' supposedly with our best interests and the protection of the Wizarding world at heart."

Ginny and Harry snorted as this.

"She began introducing Education Decrees defining what we could and could not do."

"Including learn proper DADA." Added Ginny "She had us reading defence books and JUST reading defence books in every class of the year."

"That's why we started the DA." Added Harry "And if you spoke back at her she used a blood quill on you as punishment."

"She used what?" asked Draco shocked.

"You didn't know?"

"No. Bloody hell, no wonder she got so few repeat offenders."

"Don't swear." Said Hermione and Ginny simultaneously earning a slight smile from some of the others.

"What is a blood quill?" asked Tara.

"It's a quill that when you write with it, it will write the words on the page with your own blood while the same words are carved into the back of your hand."

"That's sick." She replied going slightly green.

"Just a bit." Agreed Harry showing her the back of his hand "They are technically illegal as they are classified as torture devices."

"If she is that bad why did you let her come back here?"

"Because we managed to almost entirely strip her of her power this time and because we can keep an eye on her until we can get her away from Fudge's protection."

"What are you planning to do to Fudge?" asked Hermione.

"First we need to wait for him to make a mistake, once he's done that he will get removed from power and the Goblin's and I will sue him for every knut of mine that he has."

"Every knut of yours?"

"Yes, apparently he has removed quite a large portion of my families funds from my vault while I was younger and as soon as he is weak we will hit him with it and all the evidence we have against him and Umbridge will be revealed and they will be thrown in Azkaban for the rest of their miserable lives."

"I think you're getting a bit Slytherin in your young age Harry." Grinned Draco.

Harry just grinned back "The Sorting Hat wanted to put me in Slytherin."

"Really?" Draco replied astonished.

"Yep. If it wasn't for me meeting you when we got out robes and me meeting Ron on the train I wouldn't have argued with it."

"Bloody Hell!" he exclaimed.

"Don't swear." Added Buffy teasingly after a couple of seconds, filling in for Hermione and Ginny who were both rather shocked by the revelation.

"So how many people has she tried to discipline since being here?" asked Tara, breaking the stunned silence.

"Quite a few," Harry replied "Mainly me, she has tried to put me in detention three times for being out after the student's curfew and twice after the Professors curfew."

"How was she planning to justify that?" asked Hermione.

"She claimed that I was a student not a teacher, she apparently had not been told about my position amongst the staff and once she learned that she tried to get me arrested because I could not possibly know any Occlumency."

"You should have seen her face the morning after when she came to arrest him in the Great Hall." Grinned Draco.

"How early was this?" asked Ginny.

"About six, she came storming in with four Aurors trailing her including the one in charge whose name I can never remember, sounds like King Lee."

"Kingsley." corrected Hermione.

"That's the one; she marched in and announced to the whole school that Potter was under arrest for breaking the curfew and missing the subsequent detention."

"That's when Dumbledore showed up." Interjected Harry "He calmly countered every argument she put forward, she even tried to have him arrested for interfering but Kingsley told her quite firmly that based on the evidence there was nothing they could arrest them with."

"She almost pulled her wand on him for that one, she remembered just in time that that could get her arrested. She marched out of there with her face redder than those horrible pink clothes that she wears. I think the best bit was the way Potter just sat there and...."

He was interrupted by a worryingly familiar red wave of magic passing through the room.

"Oh no, not again."

________________________________________________________________________

On the other side of the school Dolores Umbridge was marching her way down one of the lower corridors searching for students doing things they shouldn't, she may not be able to take points, give detention or arrest them but she was going to make sure that this school behaved like a school should.

After sending a spell at a pair or Ravenclaw's to tighten their ties up to where they should be she rounded a corner just as the red wave of magic passed through the corridor she was in.

Seeing no obvious source she determined to head straight for her office so she could report the strange spell to the Minister, she may not be able to do anything about it but if that sort of large spells were being performed without the Ministers knowledge it needed to be stopped.

As she rounded the next corner she got hit in the back by a disarming spell. As her wand went flying she spun around to face her attackers. It was the Ravenclaw's she had just encountered though this time they looked angry and were brandishing their wands menacingly.

"How dare you attack me, a Ministry Official. You will be sent to Azkaban for this."

"Do we look like we care?" asked one removing his formerly properly noted tie, looping it around his hands and stretched it tight between them "Let's see how you like having a tie around your neck."

________________________________________________________________________

Several corridors away Dawn had just been thrown into a classroom.

Her head was spinning; the last thing she remembered was running into Roger Davies in the hall on the way back to the Scoobies Common Room when a familiar flash of red light passed down the corridor.

She had watched it pass through them and go out of sight at the end of the corridor before she was struck on the head.

While trying to regain her feet she remembered seeing Roger towering over her, his eyes a horribly familiar red colour.

While she stumbled about he had grabbed her and thrown her into an empty classroom sending her tumbling into several of the desks as she landed on the floor with the beginnings of several bruises.

"Roger." She managed to gasp out, all the air having been forced out of her by her impact with the desks "Please don't!!"

As her world came back into focus she saw Roger advancing on her a look of lust upon his face.

________________________________________________________________________

Everyone in the training room was already in full swing by the time Willow made it to the door.

She entered just in time to see Anne go flying across the room having just been thrown there by Buffy.

"You think you are so much better than me don't you," hissed Buffy advancing on her twin "Just because you can do magic you like to think that you are the real Slayer."

"I'm more of a Slayer than you'll ever be." Replied Anne standing and drawing her wand.

"What, you don't think you can actually beat me without your new found powers?"

"I could beat you easily," sneered Anne "You're just not worth the effort."

With that she started bombarding Buffy with spells, on the far side of the room Willow could see Ginny trying to strangle Hermione one handed with her bow, using the string to cut off her air supply while her other hand was holding tight onto Hermione's other wrist trying to prevent her from stabbing her in the neck with one of her own arrows.

"Come on little Miss Know-It-All, is this all you have got." Laughed the redhead as Hermione's head became a similar colour to her hair due to lack of air.

"No." gasped the brunette as she stopped trying to prize the bow off her neck and slammed her elbow down onto Ginny's partially bent knee. There was a load crack as she made contact and Ginny screamed out in pain giving Hermione a chance to slide her head out from between the bow and its string before pulling herself away along the floor, a small amount of blood trickling from her neck and fingers where the string had been cutting into her skin.

Giving herself about five seconds to recover a still gasping Hermione turned around and was about to plunge the arrow into the injured girls neck when it went flying out of her hand and flew into Willow's waiting palm.

"Sorry Hermione, I can't let you do that."

As the brunette in question drew her wand she followed this up with a throwing spell which sent Hermione into the wall, just hard enough to knock her unconscious. Not pausing she then did the reverse to the pair of Slayers who had reached a deadlock in that neither could hit the other either with fist or spell as both were far too quick. Willow's spell pulled both into the near wall knocking Anne unconscious as temporarily disorientating Buffy.

As Ginny was distracted by her now broken leg Willow waited until last to put her in a stasis field, she could take her to the Hospital Wing later.

Sighing against the wall she suddenly realised.

"Weren't Tara, Harry and Draco supposed to be in here as well?"

________________________________________________________________________

Several corridors away Harry and Draco were struggling under the fury of Tara's magic.

She was forcing them to defend themselves back to back as she threw objects and spells at them from every angle forcing them to retreat away from her as she levitated herself along the corridor, her hair and skirt wiping around in some previously non-existent wind, her eyes glowing bright red.

"Merlin, how strong is she!" shouted Draco as Tara screamed out sending another set of spells and objects into their shields.

"I think the answer to that is very!" replied Harry from his back as Tara sent a suit of armour along with the halberd held in the suits gauntlet at his shield "Can you try to get away round the end of the corridor and then run around so you appear on the other side of her?"

"No!" came the shouted reply "I tried that but she keeps throwing things at our backs, at this rate we'll be dead inside of five minutes!"

"Look on the bright side!"

"What bright side!" Draco replied as a screaming portrait was ripped off the wall and flung at his shield breaking the frame.

"At least she's not trying to have sex with us!"

"Would that be such a bad thing?" replied the Slytherin as another set of objects hurtle at his shield "It's not like she's not attractive!"

"I agree she's very attractive, especially in those corset things she likes to wear, but I think Ginny might object if you tried it!"

"What about Fleur if you tried?"

"I'm mated remember. I wouldn't try unless I was affected by this spell, whatever it is, hence the whole terrible Dawn situation; I'm in a big enough mess as it is without adding an attractive lesbian witch into the mix!"

"Well as she is not trying to jump our bones I would guess that this spell whatever it is, is not the same as the last one!"

"It looked the same!" replied Harry as a bookcase was thrown at them through the door of a nearby empty classroom.

"Yes, but the effects are different and unless everyone except us who was previously in the MD room has some very kinky sex habits I would say this spell is different!"

"Point....ARGH, Taken!" Harry growled out as his shield was bombarded again and again by every book from the bookcase that had just been thrown at him "We can't take much more of this, do you think you could cast with two hands?"

"Never tried! Why what are you planning?"

"When I say, take my wand and start practicing!"

"Are you insane? That would leave you defenceless!"

"Not exactly! I have one more weapon up my sleeve!"

"We already lost our swords!"

"Not swords! In five seconds take my wand and do whatever you can to distract her! Ready?"

"No!"

"Now!"

In one quick movement both students ducked letting masses of projectiles fly over their heads, Draco quickly grabbed Harry's wand in his left hand and spun on Tara and started blasting spells at her (very successfully for a first try) out of both wands forcing Tara to raise her own shield defensively as each spell came at her twice.

Using the distraction Harry focused as hard as he could and was relieved a moment later when his staff appeared in his hands.

Spinning back to his feet he raised his staff in front of him creating a spherical shield around them.

"Bloody hell, where in Merlin's name did you get that!" exclaimed Draco.

"Not now Malfoy." Harry replied as more objects bounced off their new stronger shield.

With a thrusting motion he threw the shield away from them, sending it and all the objects in its way straight at Tara.

________________________________________________________________________

Tara snarled raising a shield in front of her just as the mass of books and Harry's shield collided with it, how dare this impotent runt attack her, she was a very powerful Wiccan who you do not mess with.

There was a brief pause where the two shields held the books in place concealing all behind them before both shields gave out allowing the books to drop.

Tara had no time to react as the falling objects gave way to reveal the shape of Harry's staff heading straight for her head.

________________________________________________________________________

"I'm going straight to hell for that." Sighed Harry.

"You will be if Willow or any of the other Scoobies find out." Agreed Draco casting a couple of spells to levitate the now unconscious Wiccan between them "But as she was trying to kill us I don't intend to tell them you hit her in the head."

"Thank...."

He stopped in mid sentence as his link with Dawn flared, she was in trouble.

"Dawn!" Harry shouted as he took off down the corridor, Draco and Tara's unconscious form only a few steps behind.

________________________________________________________________________

"You wouldn't dare." Shouted Umbridge, still convinced of her own superiority despite the fact that she had lost her wand.

"Wouldn't we?" grinned one of the students "You made our lives hell the last time you were here; I think it's time we sent you there in return."

"You wouldn't! You'd be arrested!!" 

"Only if we are caught."

In that second the students rushed her, turning she tried to run but they were too fast for her, in seconds she had been tackled to the floor and a school tie had been tightened around her neck.

Struggling she tried to pull it away or release their hands but they were too strong.

"How do you like having a tie around your neck?" the students laughed as she started to choke, only to stop when two stunners flew into them knocking them unconscious.

Rolling onto her side she released the ties grip on her neck before coughing profusely.

As a set of black robes came into view she looked up to see the face of Severus Snape.

"Ank 'ou." She managed through her thoroughly strangled vocal cords before his fist swung at her head.

________________________________________________________________________

"Roger, please don't." Dawn gasped shuffling backwards between the desks "Fight it."

He didn't say anything as he advanced towards her pushing the desks out the way as he did so.

As Dawn's back hit the back of the larger heavier teachers desk she realised she was trapped, her head was still spinning from being hit, so she had little hope of fighting him.

As he leaned over her she tried to send a kick at his stomach but he caught her leg as she did so and pulled her towards him with it, pulling her off her elbows and slamming her head into the floor rendering her unconscious.

Grinning, the red eyed Roger knelt down over her, grabbing her t-shirt he ripped it open, tearing the material apart exposing her bra.

Chuckling to himself he reached for her skirt flipping it up just as something large and very painfully shaped smashed its way noisily into the classroom.

________________________________________________________________________

Draco skidded into the classroom (Tara's levitated body right behind him), he entered just as Harry's antlers lifted who he could just identify as Davies up and over the teachers desk sending him to the floor painfully on the other side.

As Harry transformed back and reached for his sword which they both had recovered from where Tara had thrown them, Draco ran forward and grabbed him around the waist.

"Potter no! He's down leave him."

"You know what he tried to do!" Harry growled struggling in his grip.

"Yes but he is not responsible for it, I know Dawn is mated to you now so you are protective but he was under the control of the spell, he could not stop himself just like you could not stop yourself when you mated with her."

At his words Harry finally stopped struggling allowing Draco to slowly release him, vanishing his staff and taking his wand back from Draco he cast two charms at Dawn, one repairing her shirt and the other to reposition her skirt.

"Let's get them all to the Hospital Wing."

________________________________________________________________________

"How is she?" asked Buffy sitting beside Dawn's bed.

"She will have some slight bruises that is all." Replied Madam Pomfrey "Though I cannot comment on what she will be like mentally after what almost happened to her."

"She'll be fine," replied Giles from his position in the middle of the room with Willow, Draco and the senior staff, the other Scoobies were out checking that no students had killed each other "She has seen much more than most normal teenagers."

"What about the others." Asked Dumbledore, gesturing to the other beds holding Tara, Roger, Hermione, Ginny, Anne, several other students and most significantly Dolores Umbridge.

"They will be fine, like last time I want them to come around naturally rather than force them to wake; I'm more worried about what she will do." The nurse replied gesturing to Umbridge's bed.

"I have already wiped her mind of the events, taking them back as far as this morning." Explained the Headmaster "She should not remember a thing, hopefully if we put her in her office she will think she just fell asleep at her desk."

"I've done what I can for her throat;" added the nurse "Hopefully she should just think it's sore because she slept with her mouth open or something."

"What happened to her anyway?" asked Draco.

"Two students though it might be a good idea to strangle her." Explained the Headmaster.

"What a good idea." Agreed Harry who along with Fleur was sitting opposite Buffy and as such did not see the disapproving glance from Dumbledore.

"Fortunately Professor Snape arrived though he also was under the effects of the spell as well and after incapacitating the students opted to attack her. I happened along shortly after he had rendered her unconscious."

They were interrupted by Roger Davies groaning as he regained consciousness.

"What happened?"

"It's alright Mr Davies," replied Madam Pomfrey moving around to examine him "You were be controlled by the spell, it made yo....Oh Merlin."

Most of the room had not been paying attention to Roger Davies before this point, they had all heard the information and didn't need to hear it again, but Madam Pomfrey's exclamation and her subsequent move away from the Head Boy got everyone's attention.

"What is it Poppy?" asked McGonagall moving over to her and Davies before she too drew back upon looking at the boys face "Merlin, his eyes."

Dumbledore and Snape joined them in front of the bed as a look of understanding followed by panic crossed Davies features.

His eyes were red.

Snape was the first to realise what was going on, drawing his wand he cast a finite at the Head Boy, his eyes instantly returning to normal.

"A glamour."

"You bastard!!" growled Harry standing as comprehension dawned in his mind at the same time as it did in Fleur's "You were never under the control of the spell were you."

"I was, I was!!" he replied extremely panicked as he backed up the bed "Why else would I do what I tried to do."

"Because you wanted to!" snarled Fleur advancing on him next to Harry "This spell wasn't like the other one, it was entirely aggressive, no one was trying to sleep with anyone else except you."

"If they had Tara would have been throwing herself at Draco and me rather than suits of armour."

"You tried to use the spell to cover up your attempted rape." Growled Giles as he and the rest of the Scoobies caught up and began advancing on the cornered boy who had retreated as far as the corner of the room and who could blame him when you had a wizard, a Veela, a Wiccan and a former Watcher advancing on you all looking homicidal.

"STOP!" order Dumbledore firmly moving in between the advancing crowd and Davies "If he has done what we suspect then he will be expelled, arrested and sent to Azkaban, do not ruin your lives by becoming killers."

"He will get the kiss if I have anything to do with it," returned Harry growling "But trust me Albus, stopping us killing him while he is still in the school will be easy compared to what he is about to face."

"What's that Harry?"

On cue the double doors to the Hospital Wing literally exploded outwards down the corridor, the sound and the massive vibrations waking most of the room's occupants.

Those who had just awoken were startled awake by the sight of the Guardian hovering in the doorway, his feet a foot of the ground, discharging Electromagic to every surface near him and his look was anything but peaceful.

"How did he know?" asked Fleur.

"He has VERY good hearing." replied Giles moving back out of the Guardian's way along with the rest of the party that had been advancing on Davies, fully willing to let Adam do the dirty work for them.

Adam started moving forward, still hovering off the ground, the Electromagic discharging to the walls, floor and ceiling as he went, narrowly missing many of those in the beds.

"Adam stop!!" ordered Dumbledore moving directly between him and the cowering Davies.

"Do you know what they do in some dimensions when a man tries to rape a woman?" he asked extending his hand towards Davies, electricity lancing out from it and picking him up off the floor as it crackled over his skin making him wince in pain "They cast a spell on the man to ensure that he stays alive and then repeatedly drop him from ever increasing heights."

"Adam stop it." commanded Dumbledore casting a spell at Davies making the electricity falter slightly before Adam sent more towards him to keep him in the air.

"Do you think we should do that with you?"

With a thrust of his arm the electricity catapulted Davies through the thick outer wall of the wing, sending masonry flying in all directions.

The others ran forward in time to see Davies hovering above the many feet that made up the rest of the buildings height as Adam again supported him with electricity.

"More than once I have been called a murderer." Adam continued as calmly as before "And that I kill people just for the fun of it."

Releasing his hold on Davies the former Head Boy plummeted towards the ground.

"Adam, stop him." Shouted Dumbledore as he ran to the hole in the wall only to see Davies come to a rapid stop and float several inches above the ground.

"Luckily for you I'm not." Finished Adam letting him drop the last inch to the ground before himself settling back to the ground and walking out of the wing without a word.

Later on when the Aurors came to arrest Davies the surprisingly minor injuries he had suffered during his impact with the wall were attributed to Harry while he was rendering him unconscious in the classroom.

The absolutely terrified Davies barely put up a defence at he was taken off to Azkaban without a trial, his own confession was evidence enough to not require him having one, at the time he just seemed relieved that he was going as far away as possible from a large group of people who he was sure were going to kill him.


	112. CH112 Splitting Of The Scoobies

Chapter 112 – Splitting Of The Scoobies

Dumbledore had thought it best not to tell the school what Davies had tried to do but unfortunately like almost any secret at Hogwarts it was bound to come out before too long and sure enough by the next morning the whole school knew. After it was discovered what he had tried to do several more female students had revealed that he had tried to make them to do things they did not want to do and that probably the only reason he hadn't actually tried to force any of them before was because he knew he would not get away with it, he obviously thought that the spell would give him the opportunity to do so.

Fortunately though they did not dwell on it for long and by the next weekend it was all but forgotten as other things were more interesting to discuss.

Firstly the Animagus training had been proceeding well, it turned out that Spike and Anya's demonic traits did indeed inhibit their ability to change little more than the dimensions of certain body parts (which had caused a lot of grinning from Spike), but the rest of the group had been proceeding well and wanted to keep training but the second and third bits of news would put a stop to that.

There had been another occurrence of the red spell. This time it appeared that everyone had become suddenly intensely greedy, it had hit at breakfast resulting a sort of reverse food fight where everyone tried to grab as much foot as they could, even the Headmaster had been affected, it was not until Willow and Tara had entered and cast a large room wide stunner that they had managed to stop it. Luckily all that result was a few broken fingers and wrists.

If that was not enough for Hogwarts there was one last bit of news which was just as interesting as the last:

The Scoobies had had a meeting and had decided that it was time for some of them to return to Sunnydale, Buffy had a Hellmouth to defend while the rest had various jobs or education related reasons to go back. Angel had also contacted them and requested that Buffy return sooner rather than later as new unknown evils were on the rise in both Sunnydale and LA and he could not deal with both at once.

Another reason to proceed back quickly was that as Angel was now the CEO of Wolfram & Hart Los Angeles (which was the biggest law firm with business in the magical world and was also known to be very evil) that he had to spend as much time watching his company as the other evils on the rise. Angel was sure he could not entirely trust the company and the fact that he had accepted the job made the Scoobies a little unsure as to whether they could trust him even thought he had provided them with the means to get to England as fast as they did to rescue Adam.

So Buffy, Xander, Willow, Giles and Anya had decided it was time to head back, but that of course left Anne, Tara, Spike and Dawn at Hogwarts.

Anne was staying because Sunnydale wasn't really her home anymore, she belonged at Hogwarts and it would be rather awkward having two of them in the same house.

Tara was staying because she wanted to learn a bit more about the Wizarding World, she had to continue teaching Wiccan to the students and she and Anne had made an agreement with Harry and the group to exchange stories about their past exploits, she also wanted to complete her lessons with Hermione as they were fast becoming friends.

Spike was staying to explore his new family history and to keep an eye on Draco, though of course he never admitted to the latter reason. Also apparently Hagrid had been able to acquire him some blood from various magical creatures that he was rather enjoying.

And lastly Dawn was staying to complete her training with Adam and to stay close to Harry and Fleur so as to not put excessive strain on their link.

________________________________________________________________________

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date:18__th__ November 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Staffroom_

_Time:Late Afternoon_

They were all now standing in the Staffroom in front of the fireplace along with the Headmaster, Adam and Harry. Dumbledore had set up a special connection between the fireplace of the Summers House, Hogwarts and Harry's three residences that could only be used by Order members, the Scoobies, and the others who had admittance to Harry's houses (he had granted permission to the rest of the Order, the Scoobies and at the request of the Headmaster and with great reluctance Snape access to his residences).

"Are you sure about this Dawn, I could stay as well, all...."

"Buffy!! It's ok; I'm going to be fine, besides I've got Spike, Tara, Anne, Adam, Fleur and Harry to take care of me."

"I promise you that I will protect her Buffy," promised Harry "She will not be harmed, I swear it."

"We'll keep the Bit safe Buffy." Agreed Spike.

Buffy finally accepting her sister's safety gave her one final hug before stepping back, the only people left to say goodbye were Willow and Tara who had just shared a passionate kiss and were now crying.

"Miss you already." sobbed Willow.

"W....we'll see each other soo....soon and we can talk through the fire....fireplace." Tara reassured her though she was crying just as hard and stuttering terribly.

"Be safe."

"Yo....you to." Tara stuttered back.

Willow stepped away from her lovers embrace, their fingers staying in contact for as long as physically possible.

Buffy turned and picked up some floo powder before turning back.

"Goodbye Dawn." she turned around throwing the powder into the fire "1630 Rubello Drive, California, USA." the fire flared and she stepped into the green flames, over the next minute the group stepped into the flames.

And thus the Scoobies were split.

________________________________________________________________________

Over the next few days school started to return to normal (at least as normal as Hogwarts gets during a school year when Harry Potter is a student), lessons proceeded as usual with only the slight difference that the MD had officially been added to the syllabus, Adam and Dumbledore had decided that MD should actually give the students something at the end of their training rather than just a well done, so now the students would be awarded separate certificates of NEWT Level for Duelling and MD, the latter saying that they had passed the class and were now masters of hand-to-hand combat and of their chosen weapon, in addition Adam would gave them each their weapon of choice, each of would had been hand crafted specially designed to suit the user like those already given to Blaise.

As a result of the new lesson plans several more people had opted to join the course, Adam, Harry and Anne had also requested that everyone who had already passed the class come back to help train the now greatly increased numbers, secretly planning to award them HAWKS's if they did well.

Some of the scenes turned out to be very funny, such as Ginny teaching a load of tall seventh years how to hold a dagger as she brandished one of her own having finished the course. She now wielded a pair of curved daggers each with a foot long blade as well as a meter high bow and a full quiver of arrows that would never run out. Hermione, Tara and Dawn wielded similar weapons though their bows were slightly larger as they were both taller and had longer arm lengths allowing them to pull the strings further. All the archers especially had developed stronger muscles around their arms and shoulders as fully pulling a bow string was incredibly difficult. Luckily though the extra pulling power did not come at the expense of their womanly figures (much to their relief) and was only really evident when you felt the muscles through the skin.

Ron now wielded a very vicious looking Axe standing a meter and a half tall with a wide and long double headed blade at the top.

Most frightening of all though, was a very much fitter (thanks to the classes) Neville who actually came out top in hand-to-hand combat wielding a two meter long double headed spear, it had been specially designed to shrink down to a small piece of wood no more than ten centimetres in length (as had all the bows and the axe) that would extended when needed, the spear heads also moulded back into the wood when they were not in use. He definitely looked the most dangerous as he now stood at six foot tall (the same height as Ron and Adam and just taller than Harry) with very a muscular torso and forearms, he and Ron were most definitely the heavy artillery in the group, not that you would want to get in the way of any of them.

In addition all the hand-to-hand weapons had runes carved into them that Adam said gave them extra magical strength which prevented them from denting or blunting.

The ruins spelt out:

'Coth o Um'

Which translated as:

'Enemy of Evil'

Each weapon (not including Draco and Harry's swords) also had the owners name carved into the blade or handle as some looked fairly similar when laid beside each other except for the slight size differences between the bows and blades.

The only other major changes was that the students could pick up Wiccan Magic in the old MD slots as an official lesson taught by Tara and Hermione (who had now got the hand of the technique as Tara had of wand magic. Harry and Hermione had had Ollivanders make her a wand out of beach and a strand of Willow's hair for Tara to use), any members of the DA who hadn't joined the class when it was first announced immediately joined up.

If and when Voldemort and James's forces attacked again, they would be against stronger opponents this time.

________________________________________________________________________

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date:24__th__ November 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts Grounds – Quidditch Pitch_

_Time:Late Afternoon_

"Good afternoon witches and wizards of Hogwarts and welcome to the second Quidditch match of the school term, my name is Terry Boot and I will be your commentator today!!"

"I don't know about other Quidditch players, but I always find games a lot more fun to play than to watch."

"What about the World Cup?" asked Tonks.

"That's a bit different to a Hogwarts Quidditch match," replied Harry " I spend half my time saying wow at those sort of matches but in a Hogwarts match I have to stop myself criticizing the other seekers technique."

"I do that when I see others duel Arry." Explained Fleur "It happens to everybody, if you ever find something that you are very good at you will immediately begin judging everyone else's skill at it."

"What teams are playing today?" asked Anne.

"Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw," replied Tara "From what I have heard it is likely to be a short match."

"Why?"

"Hufflepuff are unfortunately the Quidditch team that comes consistently in last place and they have done so unfortunately for the last ten years." Replied Dumbledore.

"You can imagine what that does for their confidence." Added Harry.

"Anyone we know playing?" asked Colette

"Cho from the DA and a few others over both teams but that's about it."

"And the game begins!!"

"Would it be wrong for a Professor to bet how long it will take the match to take?" asked Harry a couple of minutes and thirty Ravenclaw points later.

"Not if you only bet on how long it will last rather than who will win." Replied Dumbledore.

"I bet five galleons on fifteen minutes."

"Twenty minutes." Countered Tonks.

"Done."

"You certainly have been." Replied the Auror grinning.

"Where is Hermione?" asked Tara lowering her binoculars "I can't see her with Ron and Dawn in the Gryffindor seating area."

"Usually during games that Gryffindor are not playing in she comes to the pitch but goes and sits on the ground just outside the stadium so she can study quietly," replied Harry "She will then meet up with us just after the match, she's only really interested in Quidditch if it's people she knows well are playing."

"Or Bulgarian Seekers." Added Fleur with a smile causing a smattering of laughter from those who understood the joke "What is the score now?"

"Sixty-ten I think." Replied Anne "You're right, this game isn't as interesting to watch as the last one."

"I am sure we could arrange from someone to fall off their broom at a great height for you at every game if you wished." Grinned Tonks.

"It could improve the suspense a...." She was cut of mid sentence by a very out of breath Hagrid running onto the pitch and bellowing up at them.

"Professor Dumbledore Sir!! Professor Dumbledore!!"

"What is it Hagrid?" asked the Headmaster moving towards the front of the box.

"It's the Minister Sir!! He's arrested Hermione!!"


	113. CH113 Fudge's Own Goal

Chapter 113 – Fudge's Own Goal

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date:24__th__ November 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts Grounds – Quidditch Pitch_

_Time:Late Afternoon_

"What is it Hagrid?" asked the Headmaster moving towards the front of the box.

"It's the Minister Sir!! He's arrested Hermione!!"

Harry was running even before the second 'e' of Hermione had been finished and he was in no doubt that a lot of the rest of the box plus a large section of the rest of the crowd would be moving in the same direction very shortly, but he would be one of the first to get there as he was running in the opposite direction to most of the others.

As he put his feet on then kicked off of the front of the box he extended his rapidly modified cloak and aimed towards the school, he was barely aware of Fleur and Colette jumping after him already transformed. Cho, shortly followed by the rest of the Quidditch players (though most only because Cho was going) over took him as they headed off in the same direction.

It was time to try a new technique or he would only just get there before the crowd.

Locking the front edge of his wing in place he retrieved his wand and extended it back behind him.

"Penitus exuro."

He heard the roar and felt the massive jerk as the flame erupted from his wand just as it would from the back of a missile; he wavered in the sky for a few moments before stabilising himself a bit and accelerating, he had never actually tried this sort of powered flight before and it was playing havoc with his aerodynamics.

Rapidly overtaking the slower brooms he quickly matched speeds with Cho and the Veela as they rapidly accelerated out across the grounds.

Fudge wanted to get back at him for all he had done to oppose him; he wanted to get back at Hermione for outsmarting him at the Equinox Ball, now he's about to learn why you don't make Harry Potter mad.

________________________________________________________________________

As days go Hermione's couldn't really get any worse, she had been sitting quite happily outside the stadium reading one her books when she suddenly finds herself being accosted by conjured pieces of rope.

After a few seconds of struggle she found herself hogtied of all positions (very thankful that she had worn jeans rather than a skirt) and gagged lying on the ground in front of a smirking Cornelius Fudge, Dolores Umbridge and several Aurors, two of whom looked immensely pleased with themselves while the remaining six (some of whom appeared to be of those who were currently defending the school) looked decidedly nervous and uncomfortable.

"Hermione Jane Granger," began one of the nervous looking Aurors "You_ You are under arrest for illegal use of Underage Magic on the 10th August 2001 at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, you are also charged with illegally entering the Ministry, illegally entering the Department Of Mysteries, of leaving Hogwarts grounds on several occasions without permission and illegal user of a Time Turner. You will now be taken from Hogwarts to which you can never return and taken to the Ministry where your wand will be broken; you will be sentenced to time in Azkaban prison for you crimes before being permanently exiled from Wizarding Britain."

"Let's go." Grinned Fudge as he turned and began walking back across the grounds.

"Sorry little Mud-Blood," grinned one of the Aurors "Looks like you won't be tainting the Wizarding World for much longer.

This was bad, this was very VERY bad, she knew that the 10th was when Buffy and Adam appeared at Hogwarts and by that time she was sixteen so she couldn't have broken a law that no longer applied to her by defending herself from Professor Dumbledore's failed capture of Harry, some of the other 'so called' charges were true but her worry was that Fudge was in control of the situation so like Sirius she would not get a trial and unless someone realised she was missing in time her wand would be broken and she would be in Azkaban and she strongly doubted that she would ever get as far as being exiled from the Wizarding world as she was sure Fudge would suddenly forget about her once she was locked up and no longer able to undermine his authority and leadership like she did with her Quibbler article or her counterargument regarding Sapphire during the Equinox Ball.

So unless someone stopped Fudge before they left Hogwarts she would no doubt spend the rest of her life as a Muggle locked up in Azkaban.

________________________________________________________________________

It was quiet the surprise to Fudge, Umbridge and the Aurors when Harry, Cho, Fleur and Colette, just twenty meters from the castle passed low over their heads causing them all to duck to the floor and causing Hermione to jerk up rapidly as the Auror levitating her dropped sideways before remembering what his wand was doing.

As they regained their feet Harry, Colette and Cho barred their way; Fleur had flown straight in to the castle, hopefully for reinforcements.

"Stand aside Potter." Order Umbridge in her usual annoying superior tone "This is Ministerial Business."

"Can't do that I am afraid."

"Potter, I have had enough of you and your friends causing me trouble." Growled the Minister.

"You are not taking Hermione from Hogwarts." Harry stated, drawing Gryffindor's sword from its sheaf on his back (which like his staff and some other magical items he could summon at will now that he knew how to) at the same time as Cho and Colette drew their wands and pointed them at the Aurors who likewise drew their own wands.

"It is not a problem Potter, as you will be going with her."

One of the Aurors moved forward and opened a scroll.

"Harry Potter you are under arrest for illegal use of Underage Magic in the year of 2000 in the town of Little Whinging, you are also charged with casting magic in front of a Muggle, leaving Hogwarts grounds without permission, illegal entry to the Ministry, illegal entry to the Department of Mysteries, illegal entry into the Triwizard Tournament and casting the Torture Curse on convicted Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange during aforementioned entry to the Ministry."

"Quite a list," replied Harry "How long did it take you to think that lot up."

"And I'd love to know where you got that last one from." added Colette, not knowing that he really had tried to cast that spell on Bellatrix, it just hadn't worked.

"All of those are real charges Potter," continued Fudge completely ignoring Colette "And just half of them would be cause enough for me to have you expelled from the Wizarding World, do you surrender?"

"In every possible sense of the word no."

Fudge's lips twitched happily.

"Aurors take him down!!"

In a split second the two Aurors who were enjoying themselves launched spells at the trio.

Harry spun his sword around and expertly caused the spells to rebound off the polished sides back towards their casters much to the surprise of the women at his sides who had both raised shields.

The two spells impacted the casters and knocked both out which included the Death Eater who had been levitating Hermione who unfortunately the split second before he had been rendered unconscious had flicked his wand skyward sending Hermione (still Hogtied and until that point very relieved) hurtling upwards.

________________________________________________________________________

Hermione screamed into her gag as she was thrown several dozen feet into the air, if she hit the ground from this height and tied up like this she would likely break her neck.

As she stopped going upwards and started descending she screamed again.

With only four meters to the ground she felt a massive wind blast from above her followed by a large shadow being cast over her and a sharp tug by something around her midsection. She stopped descending and began to fly level slowly with a jerking up down motion before gently be set down on the grass near Harry.

Realising who had just rescued her she was not worried when she felt reptilian scales brush against her bound hands just before the ropes snapped and her limps were released allowing her to move again.

Slowly getting to her feet she removed the gag and breathed a deep sigh of relief, ignoring much of the pain in her aching muscles.

"Thank you Sapphire." She panted turning to the now two and a bit meter Wyvern, who bowed her head in return, obviously understanding that she had just thanked her. Thank goodness she grew so quickly or she would not have been able to carry her even that short distance.

Looking for her best friend she walked over to Harry and giving him a tight hug.

"Thank you, I was really worried that time."

Sending her a sly smile he disengaged from her allowing her to move into the safety of a recently arrived Ron's arms.

Looking at the scene around them she saw that she had missed the disarming of the more reluctant six Aurors who were standing next to Fudge and Umbridge in the middle of a crowd which consisted of almost the entire school, the inner most ring of people included the Professors, Adam (who had turned up from somewhere), all those who had been flying and the fastest runners including she noticed all of the old Gryffindor team, she also noticed that a fair number of the crowd had wands drawn though only Cho, Colette and Ron had them pointed at them.

"I will have you all arrested for this!!" bellowed Fudge "How dare you attack the Minister of Magic."

"Yet again Fudge you seem to have failed to notice that not a single spell has been sent at you." Replied Harry bringing his sword up to rest against his shoulder.

"None the less, you Potter, your friends there," he said gesturing at Ron, Hermione, Cho, Colette and several other members of the crowd who had their wands drawn, presumably from taking part in the Auror disarmament "Longbottom and Lovegood are all under arrest and will accompany me to the Ministry now!!"

"Minister Fudge!!" came an angry bellow from behind the crowd who rapidly parted to reveal the fuming form of Amelia Bones accompanied by Fleur and six Aurors "What one earth do you think you are doing?"

"This is none of your business Director Bones." Announced Umbridge moving to confront the Head of the DMLE as she approached.

"I beg to differ." Replied Madam Bones walking around her as if she did not exist "Minister, you have pulled four of my Aurors," She said gesturing to some of those who were conscious and had been trying to move away from the Minister "Away from their duties defending this school and another two away from their posts in the Magical Detection Office and brought them here to arrest people on warrants that require MY signature to authorise, you also require MY permission to use MY Aurors, therefore it is very much MY business."

"Then if you would be so kind as to sign these we can arrest Potter, Weatherby," Ron growled at that "Longbottom and their female friends for breaking into the Ministry last year amongst other crimes and you can arrest that Veela and that girl there," he said gesturing to Cho "For assaulting the Ministers body guard."

"Firstly Minister his name is Weasley not Weatherby and the girls you are referring to are named Granger, Weasley, Lovegood, Fontaine and Chang. Secondly I doubt that the Wizengamot will charge any of the former set with breaking into the Ministry which resulted in the revelation of You-Know-Who's return to the Wizarding World as well as the capture of several high level Death Eaters and the withholding of a strategic advantage from aforementioned Dark Lord during said incursion, thirdly when you arrest someone you do NOT hog tie them you simply put one coil of rope around their wrists behind their back and another coil around rope attached to their wrists which you hold on to, if they are noisy or abusive then you cast a silencing spell on them, if they refuse to cooperate you may stun and levitate them, you do NOT humiliate them by restraining them in such a way that it is impossible for them to move their arms or head without breaking or dislocating their joints and bones and you do not inhibit their ability to breath by gagging them and fourthly and finally I will not arrest any of the latter set of aforementioned people until I have proof of illegal activity."

"Director Bones, are you accusing the Minister of Magic of lying?" counter Umbridge moving back in front of Madam Bones.

"It wouldn't be the first time would it." snorted Katie Bell from amongst the crowd, causing Fudge and Umbridge's eyes to flick to her, Hermione later found out that the old Gryffindor team tended to come to the Hogwarts matches to catch up and reminisce.

"Arrest that girl immediately." Order Umbridge "For slander against the Minster of Magic and for assaulting the Ministers Bodyguard."

"It's not slander if it's true." Continued Angelina Johnson.

"What proof have you?" asked Umbridge, certain that they could not have any.

"Well for a start there are the over two dozen pensieve recordings we could make of these Aurors attacking Harry, Cho and Professor Fontaine and the three of them defending themselves."

"They were resisting arrest." Countered Fudge.

"You were only trying to arrest Harry from what I overheard." Replied Oliver Wood "And he only acted defensively."

"Which still counts as resisting!!"

"In case you have forgotten Minister," interceded Dumbledore "To arrest a member of the Wizengamot another member of the Wizengamot must be present."

"I am a member of the Wizengamot!!" replied Fudge spinning on the Headmaster.

"You have no family seat and the title of Minister does NOT include membership of the Wizengamot," countered Neville "Your position merely permits you to attend Wizengamot meetings."

"Well, as there are at least two other members of the Wizengamot present I can arrest Potter and you Longbottom and if you resist I am fully entitled to restrain them."

"Only if the charges are valid," returned Angelina as she came in for another verbal assault "We all know how terrible a Minister you have been over the last few years."

"Be quiet." Order Umbridge.

"Forcing the Prophet to print Anti-Harry and Anti-Dumbledore articles." She continued ignoring the insignificant Umbridge.

"Silence!!" ordered Fudge.

"Having charges pressed against Harry in his fifth year because you didn't want to believe V_ Voldemort was back."

"I order you to be quiet!!"

The rest of the crowd were standing quietly while Angelina who had obviously decided that enough was enough as far as she was concerned and was fully intending to give Fudge and his annoying pet a piece of her mind.

"Having Hagrid arrested during when the creature of Slytherin was on the loose without any proof."

"You will be silent!!"

"And let's not forget posting Umbitch over there to the school to undermine the Headmaster and having her use Blood Quills and Unforgivable curses of students to keep them quiet."

"SHUT UP YOU MUD-BLOOD NIGGER!!!"

The last three words caused utter silence for a period of about two seconds before almost the entire inner ring of people went from shocked to furious, raised their wands and fired on the Minister who was only saved by being rapidly tackled to the ground by a fuming Harry and Adam (both of whom literally had smoke coming off of their hands) who held him to the ground with two swords impaled in the ground either side of his neck before crossing a few centimetres above his throat.

There were a series of impacts and minor magical explosions as some of the spells hit other spells, student's shields and a few unlucky others who didn't raise shields in time as every single spell missed their target but that did not stop the wands of those who were still conscious from turning them on the Minister again with a few more perceptive members of the student body aiming theirs at Umbridge who had been subtly reaching for her wand until she noticed those that had just been aimed at her.

"Well well Minister." Said Adam his hands still smoking slightly "I think you just signed your death warrant."

"Minister Fudge." Announced McGonagall stepping forward "Having heard the conversation which just transpired as a member of the Wizengamot I hereby call for a vote of no confidents in your leadership, also on that evidence I hereby order an enquiry into the Ministers Office at the Ministry and a further enquiry into the alleged activities of Dolores Umbridge during her time at the Ministry and at Hogwarts."

"I second the motion." Agreed Dumbledore "Director Bones, as Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot I authorize the holding of Dolores Umbridge and Cornelius Fudge in Ministry holiday cells until such time as the results of the aforementioned enquiries are complete."

"Yes Chief Warlock." Amelia replied officially thought there was a very large hint of satisfaction as two of the Aurors who accompanied her took Fudge from Adam and Harry and another pair took hold of Umbridge.

"You will all pay for this." Swore Fudge as they were dragged back to the school.

"I recommend that we hold the enquires tomorrow Chief Warlock," suggested Amelia "At the same time as the vote of no confidence is decided."

"Agreed, and emergency meeting will be called for tomorrow."

"Director Bones?" interjected Hermione.

"Yes Miss Granger?"

"Am I correct in thinking that racial abuse is treated very seriously in your department?"

"Yes."

"Then I submit that this Auror_" she said walking over to the Auror who had insulted her area and prodded him rather harder than was necessary in his ribs with her foot "insulted me after I was bound and said I quote 'Sorry little Mud-Blood, looks like you won't be tainting the Wizarding World for much longer'."

"Take him away." Madam Bones instructed one of the other Aurors "He will be suspended pending an investigation."

"Thank you Madam Bones."

The group started to break up as the Aurors and Madam Bones left for the staffroom so they could floo back and as the students and teachers started migrating back towards either the school to discuss what just happened or the Quidditch changing rooms to get out of their sports gear.

As the crowd got down to about a dozen or so people Harry, after being hugged again by Hermione, moved over to Angelina who was currently surrounded by the rest of the old Quidditch team.

"Are you alright?"

"Fine." she nodded and what was strange was that she actually looked it "I was hoping he would snap, I've got some friends in the Ministry and they told me that Fudge had a very short fuse so I thought I'd take advantage of it, besides racist insults might be unusual in the Wizarding world as Hermione just proved, but if all the Muggle-Born's can put up with being called what they are called by Pure-Bloods then I think I should be able to put up with one insult from that incompetent bastard like him."

"I still regret you having been called that though."

After giving him a bright smile she pulled him into a tight hug.

"If you didn't you wouldn't be Harry Potter, all I ask is that you get him out of the Ministry."

"I promise." He nodded "In the mean time, I have to send a quick message to a friend."


	114. CH114 Fudges Trial

Chapter 114 – Fudges Trial

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date:25__th__ November 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – England_

_Location:London – Ministry Of Magic_

_Time:Late Morning_

The next day at the emergency Wizengamot session there was quite the hubbub as people discussed the turn of events from the day before. As it was the Minister being investigated the entire Wizengamot needed to be present, the same was true of Umbridge, as she was a high ranking Ministry official.

At that moment though Harry, Dumbledore, Adam and Tonks were being escorted up to the Minister's office by Kingsley, Amelia Bones had requested their presence. In such cases where the Minister was thought unable to fulfil his duties the head of the DMLE assumed the role of Acting Minister until the current Minister was proved innocent and capable or a new Minister was elected.

The closer they got to the office in question the busier it became, there were large piles of papers and scrolls in the corridors, so many in fact that it was only possible to walk two people down the corridor side by side instead of the usual five or six. Every pile had been extensively labelled and documented; there were Aurors, LEO's and other officials charging around like bees in a hive, moving from pile to pile, back into the offices of the Minister's staff that lined either wall and then out into the corridor to the piles again. At the end of the corridor the only area of calm lay just inside the open door to the Ministers Office where they could see Amelia leaning over the Ministers desk talking to the two people in dark grey robes and hoods that were standing in front of her.

As she spotted them approaching she straightened up and her two companion's heads swivelled around to look at them, their faces were not visible as they were shrouded in darkness even under the bright lights of the hall.

As Tonks spotted them she let out a gasp before quickly composing herself.

"Albus, Harry, Professor, Auror Tonks," she called, as they came down the corridor. "Thank you for getting here so quickly."

"Amelia," the former two replied continuing towards the office,

"Director," added the latter.

"We shall finish this later," replied one of the grey figures as they turned and walked out of the office. As they did so each and every Ministry Official in the hall stopped what they were doing and moved out of their way to allowing the two figures to pass. They squeezing into the tiniest spaces between piles and stacks of documents to avoid being in their way, some even resorted to doing dangerous balancing acts on top of piles, which by some miracle did not topple over.

All eyes followed the pair as they walked down the corridor, they did not even slow down as one Ministry employee, who had been so consumed by what he was doing stumbled out of the way at the last second.

As they approached the five new arrivals Kingsley, Tonks, Dumbledore and (instinctively) Harry moved aside_ Adam did not.

As they reached him the pair stopped and looked at him. The entire hall watched, holding its breath as Adam's eyes travelled from one to the other before slowly he bowed his head.

No one moved for a second, before, much to the great surprise of everyone else, the figures bowed back and walked around him, continuing down the corridor.

As they passed Harry, one of the figures paused momentarily and looked at him, but before anyone could say or do anything they had reached the lift and had gone.

"Auror Tonks," called Madam Bones from the office. "Can you assist Auror Shacklebolt, he's preparing the evidence ready for the enquiry and I am running out of qualified personnel."

"Yes, Director," replied Tonks, she and Kingsley immediately turned towards one of the nearby piles.

"Can I see the rest of you in here please; I want to discuss the best way to handle the enquiries." She asked, gesturing the rest into the office, before closing the door and sending a look of shock at Adam "I have never seen anyone stand in the way of an Auditor before."

"Auditor?" asked Harry. "You mean of money?"

"No, Harry," explained the Headmaster. "Auditors are members of the Department of Mysteries; they operate independently and do not answer to the Minister. They're job is to deal with threats to Wizarding Britain and they answer only to the Head of the Department of Mysteries."

"The only two members of the Ministry who are able to contact them directly are the Minister and the head of the DMLE," continued Amelia. "We can request special operations from them, but we cannot control them or force them to undertake them."

"What were they doing here?"

"Apparently they had had their eyes on Fudge for years, but they had been unable to prove anything that they could classify as evidence damming enough to justify removing him from the Ministry. Apparently they had undertaken several covert searches of his office but were unable to gather enough evidence. When I got back here yesterday, I discovered a large team of them going through all the Office files. According to those two they have been conducting secret raids all night on those that had dealings with Fudge. Apparently he has been dealings with a large number of the less respectable members of Wizarding Britain, including many with criminal records and convictions for holding and producing illegal and banned artefacts, devices and potions."

"What does that mean for us?" asked Harry.

"It means we have more evidence to use against him," replied Amelia. "And if he is ejected from office, but by some miracle he gets let off all the charges, the Auditors will immediately take him into custody for questioning, if not worse. And where Auditors are concerned its best not to ask what the worse will be. Now, back to the issue of the enquiry, we need to discuss....

________________________________________________________________________

Half an hour later, down in the Wizengamot chambers, the doors slammed shut to signal the beginning of the emergency meeting.

"I call this, the nine hundredth and fifty seventh meeting of the Wizengamot to order," called Dumbledore. "Thank you. As you know we are now sealed from the outside world and the doors will not be opened for anything less than a national emergency. This is an emergency meeting, called by Lady McGonagall, regarding a vote of no confidence and subsequent enquiry of Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge. This will be followed by a second enquiry on the activities of Undersecretary Dolores Umbridge. As this is an emergency meeting, we will not be hearing any petitions from the public, but will get straight on with the matters at hand."

Looking around, Harry was able to see a vast difference in the atmosphere since the last two Wizengamot meetings. Everyone was alert, any seat holder who had not bothered to attend the last two meetings was attending this one and the room was absolutely full because of it.

As well as the usual seating for the Wizengamot members, the public seats in the chamber had been expanded and turned into witness compartments, for those giving evidence for or against the accused. Each was covered by an individual concealment charm that permitted sound and light to pass into the cubicles, but only at certain times. No light or sound could get out of them, allowing the occupants to see and hear the rest of the room when permitted, but not the other way around.

Added to this, every Ministry department head was present, sitting along the front of the Wizengamot seats and lastly and most noticeably, in the centre of the floor was the same chair, complete with manacles, that Harry had been seated in when he was on trial.

"Lady McGonagall, as you called this meeting, the floor is yours."

"Thank you, Chief Warlock," she replied, walking down onto the floor. "Yesterday, at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, I along with the Chief Warlock and several other members of this Wizengamot were witness to an appalling display of racism by Minster Fudge. In front of no less than fifty people in visual contact with him and almost the entire rest of the Hogwarts populations hearing range, he ordered one of our distinguished Alumni, Angelina Johnson to, and I only use the term to explain the seriousness of this matter, to 'Shut up you Mud-Blood Nigger'."

The hall instantly broke out in chatter at the revelation.

"There is no doubt," continued McGonagall, allowing the crowd to quieten for her, "that this event took place. We have the eye witness and pensieve testimonies of at least thirty people, including the Chief Warlock, Lord Potter, Baron Longbottom and Director Bones to name but a few. As such the argument that this even did not transpire is obviously not valid and should not even be discussed at this meeting."

There were a large number of nods of agreement.

"Lady McGonagall," spoke Parkinson Senior, getting to his feet. "It is my understanding, from what I have heard, that this Miss Johnson, as well as several others present at the event, including some of those in this chamber, had been goading and provoking the Minister."

There were mutterings of disapproval from some areas of the assembly.

"Everyone has a limit, Lady McGonagall. People can only be pushed so far, even you are not exempt from that."

Cries of disbelief.

"I never claimed to be, Baron Parkinson. But the fact that the words that the Minister used were all extremely racist is not excusable," many cries of agreement from the crowd. "If he had said 'Shut up you stupid girl', or even 'Shut up Muggle-Born' it might have been SLIGHTLY more excusable, but as the three words that the Minister used the second he snapped were all racist, it proves that he did not think long about his response, so those words must have been those that he had assigned to Miss Johnson in that split second, meaning that they are words he would have used to describe her, which is inadmissible."

More sounds of agreement as Parkinson took over again.

"Then I propose that the Minister simply make a public apology to the girl in question. The Minister has been under a lot of stress because of the recent attacks, one slight mistake to an individual, in all his long years of service to our country should not be disregarded so lightly."

"One mistake!" laughed Moody. "Would you not call hiding the fact that You-Know-Who is back for a year a minor mistake?"

Several new people nodded their support as the old Auror finished.

"There was only the word of one boy to state that he was back," replied Parkinson. "A boy who has a habit of getting into trouble."

Harry narrowed his eyes at the comment, but did not react in time to stop Neville doing so.

"A man, Baron Parkinson that trouble seems to find, there's a difference."

"He is attention seeking."

"He is also in the room, Baron Parkinson," interrupted Dumbledore. "And if he was attention seeking would he not have said something in his defence by now?"

"He doesn't need to, when others are willing to do it for him. We all know about how he took an illegal flying car to Hogwarts in his second year."

There were mutterings of agreement from the Fudge and Voldemort supporting groups.

"I would consider that a feather in his hat personally," continued Dumbledore. "When he and his friend Ronald Weasley were prevented from boarding the train, they flew to the school, rather than waiting around for someone to realise something was wrong."

"They broke the law."

"They were cleared of all charges," replied Director Bones. "Besides, they were only twelve at the time."

"Be that as it may, at the time that Minister had been taken into custody, he was trying to arrest the boy, along with several others. As such, they were biased against him and those charges presented by the Minister need to be considered before this enquiry can continue."

"Agreed," added a member of Fudge's group.

"Very well," nodded Dumbledore, turning to Madam Bones. "Director, do you have a copy of the allegations with you?"

"I do, Chief Warlock," She nodded, withdrawing several scrolls. Standing she placed the majority on her seat, before moving to the centre of the floor with one. "The charges were as follows: Underage Magic in the year of 2000 in the town of Little Whinging, casting magic in front of a Muggle, leaving Hogwarts grounds without permission, illegal entry to the Ministry, illegal entry to the Department of Mysteries, illegal entry into the Triwizard Tournament and casting the torture curse on convicted Death Eater, Bellatrix Lestrange during previously mentioned entry to the Ministry."

Harry had yet to figure out how Fudge had discovered his attempted unforgivable curse, only he and Lestrange knew of it, so who had she told.

"I hardly think all those charges can be brushed away so lightly," continued Parkinson.

"Then I will go through them one at a time," replied McGonagall. "The illegal use of magic was in self defence and in the defence of his Muggle cousin against dementor's. Dementor's, which the Ministry had been unable to account for as regards their movements, or who gave them their orders. As the use of magic was proved to be self defence at his trial that charge cannot be used again, unless additional evidence that was not available at his previous trial becomes available. The use of magic in front of the muggle does not apply, as the muggle in question lived with him and was therefore already aware of magic."

"Leaving Hogwarts grounds is an internal Hogwarts issue," contributed Dumbledore. "And while against school rules, is not against the law. Therefore any punishment would be decided by either Lord Potter's head of house or myself, and given what he and his friends did; I have no intention of providing any punishment."

"Neither have I," continued McGonagall. "His entry to the Triwizard Tournament was proved to have been beyond his abilities and was admitted to by the Death Eater, Barty Crouch Junior, shortly before he was attacked by a dementor sent by the Minister."

"Those testimony do we have to support that?" tried Parkinson.

"Mine," replied Dumbledore. "As well as that of Lady McGonagall, Professor Severus Snape and Lord Potter himself."

"I hope you are not about to imply, Baron Parkinson, that the Chief Warlock would lie to this assembly?" asked Amelia.

"Of course not," he replied slowly. "But you not dispute his illegal entry to the Ministry and Department of Mysteries."

"Director Bones," asked McGonagall. "How is legal entry to the Ministry defined?"

"Legal entry requires that, if the person is not a senior ministry official, for the person in question to enter the Ministry by way of the Main Entrance, either via use of the Public Entrance, as Lord Potter did, through one of the official floo connection or via a Portkey into the designated Portkey area. The person in question must pass through the security check point and providing their wand for inspection when asked. The only exceptions to those rules are Aurors, who can bypass the security checkpoint when on official business and when they have their badge as proof of identity, though their badge number will be logged."

"Are there any other ways into the Ministry?"

"Only three, one is the floo connections to individual Ministry departments, which only the head of that department, members of the DMLE and the Minister can use, entry through these portals is again logged. The second route is straight into the Ministry holding area for Aurors and LEO's with prisoners and the last is methods into and out of the Department of Mysteries, which are classified as Top Secret and I therefore cannot detail."

"So when Lord Potter and his friends entered the Ministry, through the Main Entrance, by one of the accepted routes, giving a truthful reason for entry and passing through the Auror checkpoint they were entering legally."

"That is correct; the Aurors, having been killed and removed by the Death Eaters, were obviously unable to ask for the wands of Lord Potter or his friends."

"What about entry to the Department of Mysteries?"

"The DOM has its own security measures which again are classified, but I have been assured by a representative of the department that Lord Potter's did not knowingly break into the department."

"So he did break in then," countered Parkinson.

"May I speak?" came a deep voice from the end of the bench which the Ministry heads of department sat at. At the end, a figure in a grey cloak stood. Each of the departments of the Ministry had to have a representative present at the meetings, including the DOM, though whoever it was rarely said anything.

"The Wizengamot recognises the representative of the Department of Mysteries," announced Dumbledore, as the figure moved to the centre of the floor. McGonagall and Amelia moving back to give him some space.

"Director Bones response is correct, any and all the security measures of the department are classified, but I will say that Lord Potter and his companions did not break in, as the Death Eaters had already done so, the remaining security measures they were able to bypass, but them doing so does not constitute breaking into the department. I will also remind Baron Parkinson that only the head of the Department of Mysteries can press charges relating to the Department of Mysteries, as such any related charges brought by Minister Fudge are void."

After finishing, the figure stepped back to the seat and sat, waiting for those in the room to start speaking again.

"I believe that is all of Minister Fudge's charges dealt with," announced Dumbledore. "Let us retu_"

"With respect, Chief Warlock, it is not," interrupted Parkinson. "There is still the matter of the cruciatus curse being cast on Bellatrix Lestrange, during the 'legal' entry by aforementioned group to the Ministry."

Many mutterings began as Parkinson spoke.

"Can you honestly imagine, Baron Parkinson," asked Director Diggory, "that Lord Potter could cast the torture curse on anyone?"

"Under normal circumstances possibly not," returned the Baron. "But the accused has strong reasons for disliking Bellatrix Lestrange."

"Need I remind you Baron, that Minister Fudge is the accused, not Lord Potter," interrupted Dumbledore.

"My apologize," replied Parkinson, bowing slightly in Harry's direction. He must think he really has something if he is being this courteous, whilst trying to dam him. "But my point remains the same; Lestrange had been responsible for the crippling and permanent disabling of the former Baron Longbottom and his wife. Their son, the current Baron Longbottom, is one of Lord Potter's best friends."

Looking sideways, Harry could see Neville's face was perfectly calm, but he could also see the small trickle of blood leaking out from around his house ring in his tightly clenched fingers.

"She is also responsible for the death of Lord Potter's godfather, the now deceased criminal known as Sirius Black, who supposedly came to his rescue at the DOM."

"How did you and the Minister, for proposing these charges in the first place, come by this information?" interrupted Moody.

"From the recently recaptured Death Eater, Lucius Malfoy. He, along with Lestrange led the attack on the Ministry and between the time that he escaped and was recaptured, Lestrange passed this information to him."

Parkinson paused as the information sank in, more and more of the Wizengamot were looking like they were against Harry and he had precious little to help him, he had cast the unforgivable on her, or at least tried to, of that he was guilty and unless he could find a way to disprove the evidence he would be going to Azkaban.

"For an accusation such as this, more proof is needed than the evidence of a convicted Death Eater, who is a known enemy of Lord Potter," returned Dumbledore.

"That is easy to resolve Chief Warlock," replied Parkinson. "Just before the start of the meeting, I requested that Lucius Malfoy be brought here so he could be questioned."

As he spoke, Harry saw the eyes of Dumbledore, McGonagall and Director Bones widen. They had obviously not been aware of this, as far as they knew this was all lies, the only other person other than Lestrange who he knew was aware of his attempted crucio was Fleur, for obvious reasons. So Bellatrix must have told Malfoy, hopefully she would have told Malfoy enough to allow him to dodge this one.

"I wish for Lucius Malfoy to be called as witness against Lord Potter."

Unfortunately there were enough sounds of agreement for this to happen.

As a rather shabby Lucius Malfoy was dragged from one of the cubicles, he briefly grinned at Harry, but it was too fast for anyone other than Harry to notice.

"If I may Chief Warlock, may I begin the questioning?" asked Parkinson, with some degree of pleasure.

"You may proceed, Baron Parkinson," nodded Dumbledore, though he was obviously not happy about it.

"Wait!!" called Moody's gruff voice. "He should be given Veritaserum."

"For what reason?" demanded Parkinson.

"At the end of the last war, Malfoy lied to the Wizengamot and claimed he was being controlled, he therefore cannot be trusted to tell the truth."

"There are grounds for the administering of the drug," agreed Dumbledore, nodding to one of the Aurors who had just finished chaining Malfoy into the chair in the centre of the room.

The Auror withdrew a small vile from his pocket and poured the contents into Malfoy's willing mouth, he must really think he had got him cornered if he is willingly taking the potion.

"Mr Malfoy," began Parkinson. "Will you please tell us of the events at the Ministry last year that were recounted to you by your cousin, once removed, known as Bellatrix Lestrange."

"After she left the Department of Mysteries, Potter tried to pursue her."

"What did she say happened when they reached the Entrance Hall to the Ministry?"

"Potter fired the torture curse at her."

"He fired the torture curse at another person?"

"Yes."

"Did she get hit by the curse?"

"Yes."

"Did she hear him use the word 'crucio' while he was casting?"

"Yes."

"Did she, in anyway, make it sound like she might have been mistaken?"

"No."

"No more questions Chief Warlock."

Most of the Wizengamot were staring in shock at Harry waiting for him to react to the accusations; surely he had to defend himself, and he would.

Standing he addressed the hall.

"May I question the prisoner Chief Warlock?"

"You may Lord Potter," Dumbledore replied. His look made it clear that he did not know a way out of this one; Harry just hoped his idea would work.

"Malfoy, can I confirm that Bellatrix Lestrange's account of events agrees with mine when I say that only the two of us were the only ones present in the Entrance Hall when I supposedly cast the torture curse?"

"Yes."

"Did Bellatrix describe to you what the curse felt like when it made contact with her?"

"She compared the pain she received to that of a stinging hex."

"So the result of supposed aforementioned curse was not the same result as would usually occur when one is hit by the torture curse?"

"No."

"Are you aware that it is possible to pronounce one curse while casting another?"

"Yes."

"Was Bellatrix aware of this?"

"I don't know."

"Baron Parkinson, before you entered made a rather compelling case for why I would want to cast the torture curse on Bellatrix Lestrange. I am going to present that case to you. Given the fact that Bellatrix Lestrange destroyed the minds of Frank and Alice Longbottom and that Neville Longbottom is not only a dorm mate, but a close friend of mine. Also the fact that I have been tricked into entering the Ministry by false images of my godfather, one of my only two links to my dead parents, being tortured by your Lord Voldemort. In addition the fact that along with yourself and several others, she had seriously injured several of my closest friends and then finally, finished that off by killing my godfather right in front of me, after he had come to my assistance. Bellatrix herself told me that you have to want to inflict pain to cast the torture curse, you must mean it. Given all the arguments I have just presented, would you say I had enough reason, enough anger and hate for Bellatrix to want to inflict pain upon her?"

"Yes."

"And given all that hate, if I cast the torture curse would I be successful?"

"I don't know."

"Ok, do you think I would be successful?"

Lucius shuddered slightly, realising where the line of questioning was going he tried to overcome the potion.

"Maybe."

"Yes or no?"

He shuddered again.

"Yes!" he growled out through clenched teeth.

"Now, take into consideration that I, in the two months after the events at the Ministry achieved two double EAGLES, one of which was teaching duelling, do you believe I had the power and skill necessary to cast the torture curse?"

"Yes!"

"And yet, when I supposedly said the word 'crucio', the result was not that of the torture curse?"

"No!"

"So taking into account all the evidence I just presented and the answers you have just given, would you agree that it is illogical to think that I would unsuccessfully cast the torture curse?"

"I_ Agree!"

"And would you also agree, that it is much more plausible that being a so called 'do-gooder' and sometimes referred to as the Wizarding Worlds saviour, that I, being skilled in duelling, actually cast a stinging hex and merely verbalised the words for the torture curse, which is in no way illegal, in order to cause Bellatrix to dodge and make a mistake so I could catch her, because she thought the identically coloured curse heading for her was in fact much more dangerous than it actually was and that I was just unfortunate that she did not dodge as I had intended, do you agree with that?"

"I_ Ag_ ree!!"

"Thank you Mr Malfoy," Harry smiled, before heading back to his seat. "No more questions Chief Warlock."

He took two steps then paused.

"Actually, two more question. Would you or your wife's sister Bellatrix, lie if you could, in order to achieve your aims, to take revenge on someone you have a grudge against or just because you could?"

"Yes!!"

"And would you say that both you and Bellatrix have grudges against me?"

"Yes!!"

"Thank you."

As he walked back to his seat he could almost see Parkinson fuming.

"You cast the torture curse, I know you did Potter!!" exploded Malfoy, as the last of the potion wore off.

"You have no proof Malfoy," Growled Moody. "And considering the fact that you are a convicted Death Eater, that you obviously lied about being a Death Eater after the first war and that you yourself just agreed that it was highly unlikely that Lord Potter cast the torture curse, your accusation does not mean much."

"Unless anyone else has an objection I suggest we move on." re-commenced Dumbledore.

Malfoy and Parkinson exchanged a quick look.

"Yes Chief Warlock," the latter began again. "We must investigate this further."

"How would you recommend we do that Parkinson?" asked Moody. "Malfoy can't be trusted, Lestrange is not in custody and Lord Potter's wand will have cast far too many spells by now to be able to backtrack to the date in question."

"Then subject Potter to Veritaserum."

"For what reason?" asked Dumbledore. "There is no valid reason for doing so, in fact quiet the reverse, I cannot recall one occasion where Lord Potter has lied and until this meeting every bit of evidence he has provided, whether it be regarding his own failed trial last year or regarding Voldemort's return to power, has been proved accurate. There are no grounds for administering the potion."

Harry was beginning to wonder whether Dumbledore actually suspected he had really cast the curse and if that was why he was resisting, or whether he was just trying to conceal other information like the contents of the prophecy.

Either way his defence was successful as no other objections were raised as a shouting Malfoy was removed.

"Now getting back to the subject at hand, I suggest we proceed with the enquiries. The original plan was to conduct Dolores Umbridge's first, but as we have started the Ministers, I suggest we finish it. Bring him in."

As Fudge was brought out and chained into the chair at the centre of the room he wore a look of confidence, obviously convinced that he could counter any attack.

"Minister Fudge," began Dumbledore. "A vote of no confidence has been called against you, an enquiry will now be held to determine what the result of this vote should be. Baron Parkinson, would you care to act as the Ministers defendant during this enquiry?"

"I would Chief Warlock," he replied, walking down onto the floor to stand beside Fudge.

"Lady McGonagall, do you still wish to carry out your call of No Confidence?"

"I do Chief Warlock."

"Then it is up to you and Baron Parkinson to present evidence for and against the Minister, you may both call for additional assistance in this, from both witnesses and other Wizengamot members. Lady McGonagall, please begin."

"Thank you Chief Warlock," she nodded, turning to Fudge and beginning to walk around him and Parkinson. "Members of the Wizengamot, we all know how the Ministry, under pressure from the Minister, did whatever it could last year to cover up the return of You-Know-Who. The Minister not only tried to have Lord Potter convicted, but he also pressured this assembly to have the current Chief Warlock removed for supporting Lord Potter. It is also well known that the Daily Prophet had, until this year, become the Ministry's mouth piece; it was only when the Minister was proved wrong, that the Prophet started to disobey the Minister's instructions."

"Objection, the Ministry has no control over the Daily Prophet. How could the Minister force the Prophet to print anything?"

"The Minster might not have direct control over the Prophet, but he doesn't need to. He controls the tax rates, he could introduce legislation to tax every sold copy of a newspaper, he could remove the Prophet's owners from the VIP lists of certain Ministry events, he could revoke their reporter's access to Ministry personnel, lessoning their ability to gather information for articles. There are any number of things that he could do to gain influence over what they published."

"Objection overruled."

"The Minister last year, also overturned long unchanged Ministry policy and interfered with the smooth running of Hogwarts. In doing so he appointed Dolores Umbridge, a woman who had no training or skills in teaching, as demonstrated by the test results of the year," McGonagall added quickly, as she saw Parkinson move to interrupt, "to be the position of Defence Professor. Then after the Minister raised her position to that of Hogwarts High Inquisitor, a position that Ministry laws state should never have been created, she starts firing the Hogwarts staff and introducing 'Education Degrees', forcing certain clubs, including the only successful defence education group to become illegal, the discovery of this groups then causes the Minister, after seeing the name that Lord Potter and his friends jokingly gave to the group, 'Dumbledore's Army', to try to arrest the Chief Warlock, despite the fact that the Headmaster had nothing to do with the group. Following the Headmasters departure Dolores Umbridge was appointed as Headmistress of Hogwarts, further directly going against the rules of Hogwarts and the Ministry which forbid the Ministry from having any influence over the running of Hogwarts."

"The Minister is head of the Ministry," replied Parkinson. "He has the right to overturn Ministry rules if he wishes."

"Not without the agreement of the Wizengamot, which he only got after forcing the Chief Warlock from that position. The Hogwarts governors also have to agree to any Ministerial interference with the school, which they did not. In the circumstances I, as Deputy Headmistress should have taken on the roll of temporary Headmistress."

"The governors did not offer any resistance to the Minister's changes," countered Parkinson.

"How could they, when Lucius Malfoy was head of the Board of Governors, most of them would not dare go against someone like him and those that would were too few to do anything about it."

"Lady McGonagall, all you have managed to prove is that the Minister MAY have done some things that he technically was allowed to. The most you have managed to prove is that maybe he cut a few corners, you have no proof he influenced the Prophet, his legal influence at Hogwarts was not opposed, he denied the return of Voldemort only until it was verified and if he, as you say 'forced' the Chief Warlock to step down then he could only do so by majority vote of this assembly. Have you ANY hard proof that he had done anything illegal."

"This is not going well," mumbled Neville.

Luckily Harry had an ace up his sleeve.

"May I give evidence against the accused?" he asked, standing. He noticed how several members of the Wizengamot who had until recently been looking extremely confident suddenly looked worried.

"Of course, Lord Potter," replied Dumbledore, whose expression clearly showed to those that knew him that he had no idea what he was about to do.

"Thank you Chief Warlock. I request that the accused by given Veritaserum."

"For what reason Lord Potter?" asked Dumbledore as some in the room moved to object, Harry knew that the Headmaster had to appear as neutral as possible.

"We already know that the Minister concealed Voldemort's return from us for a year, he also, as we saw earlier, invented charges against myself. I therefore submit that he cannot be trusted to tell the truth." He paused briefly but not for long enough for others to jump in. "But to prove that statement, I propose the following; that he be given the potion and then I will ask him one question, if the answer to that question is no, then I will not question him further while he is under its influence and I will pay for that dose of the potion. If the answer is yes, I will be allowed to continue questioning."

"What question do you propose asking?" asked Parkinson.

"I would rather not say beforehand as it may give the accused a chance to object to the questioning."

Parkinson went to speak again but Dumbledore got there first.

"Administer Veritaserum to the Minister."

"No, wait," ordered Parkinson, but too slowly as Director Bones herself quickly poured the potion into the Minister's unwilling mouth. She obviously realised that he had something planned.

Harry waited but a moment for the potion to take affect before speaking.

"Fudge, would you lie to me, your administration, this gathering or the general public in order to protect yourself and your job? Answer yes if you would and no if you wouldn't."

"Yes," replied Fudge.

"I think we will all agree that the potion was needed," Stated Harry, turning to Dumbledore. "May I continue Chief Warlock."

"Continue Lord Potter."

"Thank you Chief Warlock," he smiled, turning back to Fudge but still speaking to the room. "As Baron Parkinson has pointed out; everything that has so far been levelled against Fudge has had no definite proof, so I will ask him a few simple questions on the matter. Mr Fudge," he began, enjoying the way the Minister flinched at the non use of his title. "Did you force the Prophet to print only what you wanted it to print regarding myself, Voldemort and the Chief Warlock?"

"Yes."

"Did you force the Wizengamot to have the current Chief Warlock removed from his position in the Wizengamot?"

"Yes."

"Did you place Dolores Umbridge at Hogwarts against the laws of this country and of Hogwarts?"

"Yes."

"And are you biased against Non-Purebloods, part humans, women and people whose ancestry does not originate in the British Isles?"

"Yes."

Throughout the line of questioning Parkinson along with many other members of the Wizengamot were starting to groan as the Minister dug himself deeper and deeper into a hole.

"Thank you. Now I shall describe a crime, which is most definitely illegal, even if some of the aforementioned were not and that only a very few people in this room are aware of. Mr Fudge had previously, as I am sure most here are aware, held the positions of Advisor to the Minister and head of the Ministry's Accounts Department. During which time he was in control of all the Ministry's finances and the finances of any wizarding family that did not have an heir of legal age."

Harry inwardly smiled as comprehension dawned in Fudge's eyes.

"I would like to call a witness to explain to you exactly what he did with that power."

"Call your witness Lord Potter," nodded Dumbledore.

"I call Lord Ragnok, head of the Goblin Parliament."

There was instant uproar.

"The head of the Goblin Parliament, here!!"

"No Goblin has ever been allowed into the Wizengamot before!!"

"As if Lord Ragnok would come here at your request!!"

"He IS here at my request and there is no law that prohibits a Goblin from entering the Wizengamot," replied Harry, as the Goblin in question emerged from one of the cubicles along with a younger Goblin carrying a handful of papers. "Lord Ragnok, thank you for coming."

"My pleasure, Lord Gryffindor," replied the aging Goblin, moving to a seat that he conjured with a snap of his fingers while the other Goblin took place behind him.

"May my witness proceed Chief Warlock?" Harry asked the rather stunned Headmaster.

"Of course Lord Potter, Lord Ragnok, please continue."

"Thank you Chief Warlock," replied the Goblin in his usual rough voice, before turning to the Wizengamot. "I am here at the request of Lord Potter to give evidence of the financial dealings of one Cornelius Fudge. As most of you are no doubt aware when Lord Gryffindor's parents died, his money got passed to the British Ministry for safe keeping. As head of the Ministry's Accounts Department, the aforementioned Fudge was in control of the Potter estate until Lord Gryffindor was declared an adult."

"I have here," continued the old Goblin, as his assistant handed him a large scroll of paper, "a copy of the bank records of the Potter account during that time. During the period other than the standard income from rent and interest on the account there is only one other sort of entry listed and those are all withdrawals of large amounts of currency measuring in the millions, all authorised by the head of the Ministry's Accounting Department. As we also control all the Ministry's vaults and we controlled the transfers, we know that only a relatively small percentage ever actually made it to the Ministry Accounts, where is could only remain if it was withdrawn as a loan and so long as it was returned with interest, which neither it nor the rest of the unaccounted money was. The rest of the withdrawals we have traced to the accounts of known Death Eaters like Lucius Malfoy, the Minister's own private account and the accounts of several members of this assembly, including Baron Parkinson."

"How dare you!!" bellowed Parkinson, as much of the room started speaking and looking around at each other. "I have not taken any money from Lord Potter, Minister Fudge did buy several artefacts and pieces of valuable furniture off me, but I have never accepted any other money from him," he said, pointing towards Harry.

"Your own bank records say," continued Ragnok, exchanging the papers in his hands for another from his sharp assistant, "that, and I quote, 'Loan agreement: Vault 339 – Potter to Vault 873 – Parkinson, amount: 500,000 Galleons, authorisation Cornelius Fudge, 0% interest per annum, repayment in 4 years'. That loan was taken out two months after the deaths of the former Lord Potter and his wife and it is only the first of fifteen similar loans that have been extended to your account, Baron Parkinson. I was also mention that the interest rate, as written in the Ministry's own laws for managing other wizards accounts state that the minimum interest must be 2.5% per annum, I can also inform you," continued Ragnok turning to face the rest of the assembly. "That Baron Parkinson has monthly bank statements sent to his house and that he has, in the past, noticed what he believed to be discrepancy of fifty galleons where he neglected to take into account the service cost of a particular financial service. I would find it hard to believe that a person who could spot a mistaken negative irregularity of fifty galleons, would not notice a positive discrepancy totalling over," he paused, while he examined the document and tallied the results. "5.4 million galleons."

Several members of the Wizengamot, who could see the way the wind was blowing, were switching their looks from worry to look disapprovingly at both Fudge and Parkinson.

"Lord Ragnok," began Dumbledore. "May we know how long these loans been taking place for?"

"The entire duration of time between the day after the Ministry took control of Lord Gryffindor's vaults, until two days before we noticed an irregularity this summer and suspended all transactions on the account that weren't authorised by Lord Gryffindor."

"So Minister Fudge was still authorising transactions after he moved away from the Accounts Department?"

"That is correct," nodded the Goblin. "I have given the Aurors details of all the illegal transactions and have reversed them to the amounts that the current balances of each account will allow, though Lord Gryffindor is still owed monies totalling over one million galleons from four different members of this assembly, and another three million from others outside it including the late previous Minister of Magic."

Hearing their cue, Kingsley and half a dozen other Aurors emerged from the cubicles and raised their wands.

Several different types of reactions resulted, many members started shouting in outrage at what they guest was about to happen, others decided having a wand pointed anywhere near them was a bad idea and started scrambling to get out of the way, most of those on Harry's side either looked stunned or subtly drew their wands and lastly those that knew they were in trouble including Parkinson either panicked or started cursing.

The whole event took less than ten seconds before Dumbledore bellowed:

"SILENCE!!"

Instantly making everyone stop.

"Auror Kingsley, I trust that is all the disruption that you need bring to this meeting?"

"It is Chief Warlock," he replied, as the last of those who resisted was brought down from the seats and placed inside one of the cubicles. "We have detained everyone we planned to, our apologies for the interruption."

"Whose orders were you acting on Auror Kingsley?" demanded Amelia, who looked rather annoyed that she had not been in on the events that just occurred. "You obviously do not have warrants for their arrest as I have not signed them.

"On evidence provided by Lord Ragnok and Lord Potter I signed the 'detain for questioning for six hours' authorisations and Lord Moody was good enough to permit us access to this hall once we had the authorisations, the arrest warrants for their arrest are on your desk ready to be signed Director, pending the results of our questioning."

"I confirm that," nodded the grizzly old Auror.

"Very well," Amelia nodded. "Carry on."

As everyone returned to their seats it was evident that there were quite a few holes in the Fudge and Pureblood groups of the Wizengamot.

"In all these illegal transactions the Ministry official who authorised the transfer was Cornelius Fudge," concluded Ragnok.

"Thank you Lord Ragnok," smiled Harry, before turning to Dumbledore. "Making illegal use of protected funds is against the law, we have dozens of written example of this illegal behaviour and concrete evidence from all these occasions is more than enough to have the Fudge removed from office, stripped of his possessions and holdings in order to pay back the loans and to gain compensation for those who have had their money misappropriated and to have him arrested and imprisoned in Azkaban."

"Is there anyone who wishes to speak in the Minister's defence?" asked Dumbledore.

Those in the hall could see the panic spreading in Fudge's eyes as all his supporters remained silent.

"Very well. Cornelius Fudge, you are hereby removed from the office of Minister of Magic, you are ordered to pay back all the money you removed from Lord Potter's and anyone else's accounts that you illegal withdrew money from, with an additional 2.5% interest on all monies that went to you and an additional 10% on ALL the monies which were removed on your authority. You will then be taken to Azkaban where you will be incarcerated for a minimum of twenty years. Aurors take him away."

The entire hall watched as the Minister was dragged from the room, too shocked to even utter a word of protest.

"We must now decide who is to take the position of Minister of Magic," explained Dumbledore. "As is procedure in these matters, members of the Wizengamot must nominate either, other members of this assembly or Ministry Department Heads who are present. You are not allowed to nominate yourself. After a list of candidates has been made, each will give a short address as to why they should become Minister, we will then have a series of votes, each time the candidate with the lowest number of votes will be removed from the list of candidates."

"I nominate Albus Dumbledore," announced Moody in his usual gruff voice. Many cheers began at the recommendation.

"Regrettably, I do not have time around my position as head of this Wizengamot, Headmaster of Hogwarts and my position as Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, but I thank Lord Moody for the recommendation."

Moody sighed and shook his head before Dumbledore continued.

"I however would like to nominate Minerva McGonagall."

The Professor who along with Harry and the others had resumed their seats snapped to attention as her name was spoken.

"She is a very capable woman who has served on this assembly and as Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts for many years and is perfectly suited to carry out the job."

"I agree with the recommendation," seconded Moody, obviously thinking that if he could not get Dumbledore into the position he might as well have the next best person.

Slightly stunned McGonagall stood.

"I accept the nomination."

Several cheers went up from those that had cheered from Dumbledore, following the Headmaster and Moody in their support.

"I nominate Harry Potter," called the familiar voice of Amos Diggory. As he heard his name Harry also snapped around to face his advocate, this time as well as quite a lot more cheers there were also quite a greater number of shouts of outrage, if anyone had tried to second the support their voice was lost in the din. "He has proven time and again that he can fight and win against Voldemort, as well as maintaining his position while under the barrage of the press and a lying Minister, he is well suited to bring us through this war victorious."

There had been more shouts during the speech, some more had come round to Amos's way of thinking but just as many had swung the other way.

Standing up he ended the arguments as all fell silent.

"I too must regretfully decline the nomination. If I was successful in attaining the position it would be because of the legends surrounding me, not because of ability to do the job." Many people sighed, groaned or breathed sighs of relief "I however would ask those who would have supported me to follow my support of Director Amelia Bones of the DMLE."

Amelia's eyes widened as he spoke and made several small 'no' and 'stop' gestures which got more urgent as he continued speaking in her favour.

"She has been proved to be a very effective head of the DMLE in both times of war and peace and she is exactly what this country needs to help get this country through this war."

"I second the nomination," announced Neville, whether it was because he agreed with the recommendation or because he trusted Harry's opinion was not evident.

There was quite a bit of chattering over this one, mainly due to what people wanted the Minister to do and what the Director would do if she achieved the post. During the chattering Amelia and Harry had been undertaking a silent conversation, each mouthing or making small gestures to get their point across, only Dumbledore seemed to catch any of the exchange and only enough to see Harry tell her to take the nomination as she could always back out later.

"I," she began reluctantly causing the room to fall silent, "accept the nomination."

After she accepted four others were nominated, Amos Diggory himself was among the number and obviously thought that it was better to have two people he thought could do the job in the running as he accepted (the other being Harry's nomination). There was also Rufus Scimgeour, the Chief Auror of the DMLE who was second in command after Amelia and ranked immediately above Kingsley, while he was a very capable Auror he was known to disregard non-Purebloods, not actually insult them or call them inferior but more along the lines of ignoring them whenever possible. The last contestant was definitely straight out of the Fudge and Death Eater blocks of the Wizengamot, former Auror and now Law Advisor to the Minister, John Dawlish. He was someone that Harry recognised, he had (when he was still an Auror) accompanied Fudge when he had been caught by Umbridge after the DA meeting, he was also there when she attempted to arrest Hagrid and when Fudge arrived back at the Ministry after the confrontation with Voldemort, he had since been appointed as Fudge's advisor and several believed that because of his heavily Pureblood leanings that he had been put on Fudge's bodyguard and then appointed to be advisor so that Fudge could be controlled by those in the Wizengamot that wanted to. Unfortunately he had almost the complete backing of the entire Fudge and Death Eater sections of the Wizengamot as he was everything that they stood for despite the fact that he had never actually stated support for Voldemort; He was Pureblood, he could trace his family back ten generations with every single member being magical, he was strong and was a very competent Auror who had passed through both Hogwarts and Auror training with top marks and had when he was still with the DMLE been described as either the Barty Crouch or Alastair Moody of the modern Auror Division.

Basically it came down to, a fully competent and unbiased Professor and Administrator who Dumbledore would try to influence, a fully competent and unbiased head of the DMLE who everyone would try and fail to influence, the unbiased but probably rather easy to manipulate father of a Death Eater victim, the slightly biased but not necessarily bad Chief Auror who couldn't be influenced and a former Auror who was fully competent but extremely biased and would probably welcome Voldemort with open arms as soon as he was in a position to do so.

Professor Minerva McGonagall, Director Amelia Bones, Director Amos Diggory, Chief Auror Rufus Scimgeour or Law Advisor John Dawlish.

One of them would be Minister; it had better not be the wrong one.


	115. CH115 Dolores Docked

Chapter 115 – Dolores Docked

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date:25__th__ November 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – England_

_Location:London – Ministry Of Magic_

_Time:Early Afternoon_

"I now invite each of the nominees to step forward and make a short speech, telling the Wizengamot why they believe they are right for the job. After each speech questions may be asked of the nominee. We shall start in the order of nomination. Lady McGonagall, begin when you are ready."

Stepping forward away from the other nominees who had all gathered on the main floor of the room around where the restraining chair had been while Fudge and Malfoy had been seated in it.

"As you all know, I have served on this Wizengamot for thirty years, I have been a Professor at Hogwarts for seventeen and Deputy Head and Head of House for twelve. During that time I have increased the average pass grade at NEWT Transfiguration by twenty percent, I have helped to streamline the administrative processes behind the school. If I am elected I will use these qualifications to speed up and simplify the processes of the Ministry. Members of this assembly will also know that I have long been a supporter of the Chief Warlock in his efforts fighting You-Know-Who. During this war I will push for a greater increase in Auror recruitment and training to help us fight for our freedom."

There was applause as she stepped back into her space.

"Are there any questions for Lady McGonagall?"

No one spoke.

"Very well. Director Bones?"

"Like Lady McGonagall, I have served on this Wizengamot for many years; you will also know that I have been the head of the DMLE for almost as long. During my time, in that position, I have halved the crime rates in this country, I have increased the size of the Auror and L.E.O. forces and I have cracked down on repeat offenders. It was only with the appointing of the former Minister Fudge, that my achievements in the field of law enforcement started to slip due to budget and staff cuts. You are also no doubt aware that I am the last Bones, as my niece was killed in a Death Eater attack a few weeks ago, so I have personally lost because of this war. As Minister I would use the skills I have honed in the DMLE to combat the threat of You-Know-Who and bring a swift end to his reign of terror."

A louder round of applause rang out.

"Are there any questions for Director Bones?"

No one spoke.

"Director Diggory?"

"Thank you Chief Warlock, to avoid these speeches sounding too repetitive I will not go on about my position in this Wizengamot and my ministerial position as those points apply to the majority of the nominees. I will say though that, as Director Bones stated, she is very capable at her job and no matter how qualified, I do not believe that any successor would be as good at her job as she is. Also like Director Bones as one who has lost his son to You-Know-Who, I understand the loss that victims and victims' families have suffered. If I were elected, you would have a capable Director or the DMLE and a capable administrative Minister leading the fight, that way I could deal with any administrative hold ups and let Director Bones do what she does best."

"That's clever," whispered Neville.

"He knows he's in a weaker position, so he promotes his opponents in such a way that they are not promoted," agreed Harry.

"Auror Scimgeour?"

"Thank you Chief Warlock. Like Director Bones I have skills well suited to the task as Minister, I am the highest ranked person in the DMLE other than Director Bones and as Director Diggory pointed out she is the best person to be running the department at this difficult time. I feel I must disagree with Director Diggory though as regards his reasoning for his suitableness for the current conflict. A Minister who understands what must be done as regards law enforcement is necessary at this time, in peacetime I would agree that Director Diggory or Lady McGonagall would be ideal Ministers, but not during a time of war. If appointed to the position, I will do all I can to insure the survival of our proud Wizarding history."

There was slightly less applause than after Amelia.

When Dawlish spoke he basically followed the same path as the others, stating why they should remain where they are while he who had no department of his own and whose advice the previous Minister had ignored, which was no doubt a lie, would best allow the smooth transition of government.

It came to the fist vote.

"Please vote on the scrolls that appear in front of you, I will remind you that the candidate's votes all count towards their own nomination."

As the results were magically tallied there was nervous chattering amongst the Wizengamot members.

"The results are," announced Dumbledore, "Professor McGonagall, 14. Director Bones, 20. Director Diggory, 14. Auror Scimgeour, 19. Advisor Dawlish, 24. Professor McGonagall, Director Diggory, you have tied on the least votes; you are out of the running, thank you for your time."

Both former nominees returned to their seats. The next vote revealed similar results to the previous one.

"Director Bones, 30. Auror Scimgeour, 26. Advisor Dawlish, 35. Auror Scimgeour, you have the least votes; you are out of the running. Thank you for your time."

Before he returned to his seat he spoke to the assembly.

"I request all those that supported me support Director Bones in the next vote. Thank you."

"Thank you, Auror Scimgeour," nodded Dumbledore. "The last vote is upon us. The winner of this vote will be Minister of Magic for Great Britain and Northern Ireland."

"Merlin, I hope this goes the right way," muttered Neville, as he cast his vote.

"It all depends on whether those that were supporting Scimgeour wanted him for his political leanings or for his skill as an Auror."

"The final results are," began Dumbledore, "Director Bones, 50. Advisor Dawlish, 41. Minister Bones is the now the head of Her Majesties Magical Government of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Congratulations Minister."

________________________________________________________________________

There had been a lot of cheers as Amelia was elected. Her first act was to promote Rufus Scimgeour to her former position and recommend to him that he promote Kingsley to his.

After she had been sworn in a break was called for a late lunch, in which many people tried to congratulate the new Minister, but seeing the determination to reach someone else in her eyes, they decided to hang back. As she marched up into the Wizengamot seating and moved towards Harry, her expression was anything but pleasant.

"Never have I wanted to curse someone so much, who I thought was on the same side as me," she growled.

"You're welcome, Minister. Congratulations."

"You knew that was going to happen, didn't you?" she demanded.

"If you mean, I knew that the Pure-Blood Racist was going to be in the final two, forcing you to stay in the running to prevent him taking control. Then yes, I may have suspected it."

"You tricked me."

"Did I?"

"I don't want to be Minister, why would I want to be Minister, I like being head of the DMLE."

"LIKED being head of the DMLE, I think you mean," smiled Harry.

"I despise politics, why do you think I have nothing to do with them."

"HAD nothing to do with them," he corrected.

"Will you stop that!" she ordered, as loudly as she could while still whispering. "Why did you nominate me of all people?"

"Because I knew that if you were elected I would not have to worry about fighting the Ministry anymore, as any laws and decisions that were taken would be logical."

"You are assuming that I am going to do things the way you want."

"No, I'm assuming that you are going to do what you think is right, and between having things your way and Fudge's power hungry ego way, I will take your way every time, as at least there will be a logical reason behind every decision."

Before Amelia could come back with a response the DOM representative approached them and cleared his throat.

"I thought you might want to know Minister, that the information needed for the recent attacks on the students homes came from the Minister's office, we have found traces of a poorly cast duplication charms on all the documents, the same wand cast all the charms and having just tested the former Minister's wand I can confirm they were his. We are now testing his wands signature against the scans taken by your department of the personnel stationed in the magic detection room, but I would suspect that the signatures will match."

"Thank you," nodded Amelia, as the cloaked figure turned away.

"How can they be sure it's his wand?"

"If a spell is cast properly with a fully compatible wand, there will be little to identify which wand was used. But, if the caster is either injured, drained, has suffered trauma or has had certain spells cast upon him, a signature may develop. Damage to a wand or an incorrectly matched wand and wizard can also cause this. Think of it like hand writing, everyone learns to write the same way, but certain quills and certain things that happen to you, like a stroke for instance, could cause your hand writing to change and become distinctive. For most people, including the DMLE, it is almost impossible to tell all but the most obvious signatures apart, which is why when trying to work out if someone cast a spell, we can only use the previous spell charm on a wand to identify if it was cast with it, but that will not tell us who cast the spell. Experts though can identify individual signatures, either given off by the wand or the user and match them up; wand makers can usually do this with those they have made, as can certain people in the DOM apparently."

"Will Fudge's sentence be extended?"

"Almost certainly. Assault on officers of the law, breach of data protection laws and probably even second degree murder. The multiple counts will make that life imprisonment, and don't think I haven't noticed that you've changed the- "

"The meeting is about to recommence," announced Dumbledore. "Everyone please return to your seats."

Harry grinned at Amelia as she scowled at him on her way back to her new seat, further along the Ministerial bench.

"This meeting is back in session, we have now to discuss the guilt of Dolores Umbridge, Undersecretary to the Minister."

"Former Undersecretary," corrected Amelia. "Her employment at the Ministry WILL be terminated at the end of the session, regardless of the outcome."

"Very well, Minister Bones. Bring in the accused."

All eyes turned to her as Umbridge was brought in and chained into the chair in the centre of the room, her eyes showed confidence at her ability to remain in control, though she looked slightly curious as to why Fudge wasn't there to defend her.

"Who wishes to represent the prosecution?"

As Harry went to speak he was beaten to it by Neville.

"I do Chief Warlock."

"Very Well, Baron Longbottom. Who wishes to represent the defence?"

No one spoke, and the look on Umbridge's face fell slightly. No one was going to support her after what had happened to Fudge, Malfoy and given what the new Minister had just said, no one was going to risk supporting her.

"May I defend myself Chief Warlock?" she asked sweetly.

"You may, Miss Umbridge," nodded Dumbledore, making the accused twitch as her title was not used. "Prosecution you have the floor."

"Thank you Chief Warlock," nodded Neville, walking down onto the floor. "Miss Umbridge, how would you describe your time at Hogwarts?"

"A definite success, there were improvements in almost all students, teaching quality increased, the students were smarter, they spent more time studying and less time on silly activities and clubs. The number of childish pranks and misbehaviours fell and with the assistance of the more responsible students I was able to better control or remove the more disruptive influences of certain students."

"Right," nodded Neville. "Let's examine some of those points. Teaching quality, as has been discussed before the DADA grades for your class during that year were almost the lowest on record, with the exception of a limited number of students, most of whom were involved in one of those 'silly activities and clubs' known as the DA, all of whom got outstanding results. The number of pranks went UP as the schools poltergeist almost religiously pranked you and Mr Filch on a daily basis. And those disruptive influences would not happen to be referring to the Weasley twins would they?"

"They are certainly some of them yes; they were a continuous and troublesome influence on the other students until I forced them to leave."

"You mean until they decided to play one massive prank on you and on Mr Filch much to the elation of the rest of the student body and left the school because of the new disgraceful teaching standards."

"Objection," interrupted a rather large, round member of the Wizengamot who had been sitting close to where Parkinson had been. "That is a biased opinion and has no place in this enquiry."

"It is not an opinion when the teachers, students and grades all agree with it," countered McGonagall."

"Overruled."

"Teaching standards, which I stress are now back to a normally high level," continued Neville sending a nod at his head of house.

"Who else would you consider to be a 'disruptive influence'?"

"You, Potter, the Granger and Lovegood girls and the remaining Weasley's."

"All of whom were in the DA and got outstanding grades. What about well behaved students?"

"Mr Malfoy, Mr Crabbe and Goyle, Miss Parkinson, Miss- "

"That's already enough, thank you. All of whom got some of the lowest marks of the school year, all of whom were in your so called 'Inquisitor Squad' and all of whom have, consistently over my period at Hogwarts, lost some of the largest number of points for their house than anyone else in Slytherin. The only exception being Mr Malfoy this school term, where he has since become a model student."

"Objection," interrupted the Wizengamot member again. "Lord Longbottom is biased against the Undersecretary; all of what he just said is opinion."

"All of what he says I can confirm to be true," replied the Headmaster. "Objection overruled, Baron Bullstrode."

"Also, is it not true that you tried to use Veritaserum illegally on students, without authorisation."

"Certainly not," Umbridge replied, outraged. "I would never do something like that."

"Despite the fact that several students, myself and Lord Potter included, heard you conversing with Professor Snape, asking him for additional Veritaserum because you had already used up what he had already given you."

"Of course not."

"Does Baron Longbottom have proof of this?" asked Bullstrode senior, who once anyone knew who he was related to, definitely showed the family resemblance. It was obvious that Millicent got her bad looks from her father.

"I have the pensieve memories of myself and Lord Potter, but simpler still, I request that the accused by given Veritaserum, she clearly remembers things quiet differently than myself, Lady McGonagall and the Chief Warlock."

"Approved," nodded Dumbledore, as the new head of the DMLE administered a dose to a suddenly worried Umbridge.

Waiting a moment Neville resumed his questioning.

"Miss Umbridge, is it true that administered Veritaserum to Lord Potter?"

"No."

"Is it true that you administered Veritaserum to Harry Potter, now known as Lord Potter?" Neville corrected.

"No."

Neville obviously was not expecting that response so had not prepared for it.

Standing Harry came to the rescue.

"Is it true that you deliberately gave me a drink containing, what at the time you believed to be Veritaserum?"

"I did not give you Veritaserum," she replied.

"That is not what I asked," returned Harry. "Answer yes or no. Is it true that you deliberately gave me a drink containing, what at the time you believed to be Veritaserum?"

"Yes," she strained, causing those in the Wizengamot who wanted to see her get off sigh slightly, after what they thought was going to be their first triumph of the day shot down. Umbridge obviously has some experience fighting the drug, either that or she had some limited Occlumency skill, but either way she could not lie and she could not incorrectly answer a well constructed question.

Seating himself Harry nodded to Neville who continued.

"So you attempted to give what you thought was a restricted potion to an underage students, answer yes or no only."

"Yes."

"Is it also true that, while you had myself and those other students who entered the DOM last year held at wand point or physically restrained, that you attempted to cast the Torture Curse on Harry Potter."

"I did not cast the Torture Curse on_"

"Answer yes or no only to all questions, unless other options are given," interrupted Neville. "Answer my last question."

"Yes."

"Is it not true that you are racist against non-human and part human magical species such as Centaurs and Veela?"

"No."

"Answer that last question again using the following definition for racism, not your definition of it," rephrased Neville, quickly picking up on his mistake. "Being biased, rude, offensive or degrading to a magical creature or person because of their colour, race or nature."

"Yes."

"What is the single most extreme thing that you have done which is against Ministerial policy or the laws of this country which would come under my previous definition of racism, or which you did because you personally believed it too be right, your answer to this question only must not be yes or no."

"Sending Dementor's to get rid of Harry Potter."

"So last year when, as I have been told, you asked Professor Dumbledore if he could possibly be referring that either someone in the Ministry ordered the attack or that the Dementor's were out of control, it was actually you who order the attack?"

"Yes."

It was probable that he did not need to continue, the Wizengamot was either completely on Neville's side or not willing to risk support Bullstrode to save Umbridge, but Neville wanted to put the last nail in her coffin.

"How many students did you force to use Blood Quills during your time at Hogwarts, your answer to this question must not be yes or no?"

"I do not know."

"Ok, did you force more than ten students to use a Blood Quill? Answer yes or no only."

"Yes."

"Did you force more than thirty students to use a Blood Quill?"

"Yes."

"Did you force more than fifty students to use a Blood Quill?"

Umbridge did not answer.

"Did you fail to answer the last question because you could not give a yes or no answer?"

"Yes."

"Do you think the answer 'probably' would be correct in reference to the question before last?"

"Yes."

"Would you break the law to achieve your aims?"

"Yes."

"Did you start, before being interrupted, to cast an Unforgivable curse on Harry Potter in order to get information from him?"

"Yes."

"Have you cast any of the Unforgivables on a living human being?"

"Yes."

Nodding in satisfaction, Neville returned to his seat.

"In light of this testimony, Dolores Umbridge will be held for further questioning by Aurors before being sent to Azkaban to carry out a life sentence for use of a torture device on underage students and for casting an Unforgivable on a human."

The Aurors stepped up and removed her before the potion had a chance to wear off.

"This meeting is now concluded."

________________________________________________________________________

AUTHORS NOTE: Those who want a copy of this story in a file, it is stored in my yahoo group in 4 chapter blocks and several individual chapter files which will get concatenated into one file when I reach the end of this section of the story. I am currently going through the story and improving the punctuation, the uploaded sections will be updated in the yahoo group as I complete each, I am sure you can appreciate that if there is just one spelling mistake in each chapter there would be over 300 chapters to upload again as this story is posted on 3 sites. Someone did send me a properly punctuated file (thank you to that person) but I had since updated several chapters and made some minor modifications since then so I am currently comparing it to my corrections and merging them together.


	116. CH116 Snakes, Goddesses And Girls

Chapter 116 –Snakes, Goddesses And Girls

In the weeks following Minister Bones election and the defeat of Fudge and Umbridge, things were probably best described as balanced.

As regards Voldemort, they had heard very little of what he was up to, which could be interpreted at good or bad news. On the definite plus side though, Charlie had managed to sway quite a few of the dragon reserves to their side, they now had around one hundred and fifty dragons on their side consisting of Welsh Greens, Hebridean Black's, Chinese Fireballs and Antipodean Opaleye's. Unfortunately not the most dangerous or the largest breeds of dragon, but it was that or nothing, they at least had the advantage of numbers.

At Hogwarts there had been another mass spell incident, this time the result was either Envy or Pride, it was difficult to tell as almost all of those involved ended up in punch ups either way, there had been no major injuries this time, other than a couple of broken noses.

As regards the mated trio, Adam had as yet made no progress with his potion, but they had managed to make things slightly easier by creating another feelings sphere for Dawn and adding to the feelings inside the other two spheres so that there was a bit of the other two in each, it allowed them when holding the spheres against their skin to stay apart for several hours and probably longer if they could find a way of easily maintain the skin contact for extended periods of time.

In an effort to cheer everyone up, Dumbledore had arranged another Yule Ball, to be held on Friday the 21st, two days before the students left for Christmas, allowing them a day to recover. Other than the latest mass spell things had returning, almost to normal around Hogwarts.

And that meant it was a guarantee that something was about to go wrong.

________________________________________________________________________

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date:1__st__ December 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Corridors_

_Time:Afternoon_

It had been two weeks since the Scoobies returned to Sunnydale; Christmas was on the horizon and very few students were planning to return home, their parents obviously did not want them to leave the protections of Hogwarts, Dumbledore and the Aurors.

It was a Saturday and the Gryffindor's and Dawn (who had been made an honorary Gryffindor as to fit in her training with the others) had just finished classes for the day and were heading back to the Common Room to relax after Potions. Dawn had said she needed to make a quick stop somewhere else first and would meet them there.

At that moment she was waiting nervously outside the hospital wing, pacing up and down. She was so focused on what she was doing that she didn't noticed when the doors opened, causing her to jump when Madam Pomfrey spoke.

"Are you going to come in or where you planning on staying out here all evening?"

"How did you know I was here?" asked Dawn, heavily breathing.

"One of the portraits told me," She explained, before opening the door to allow her passed. "Shall we?"

Nervously entering Dawn moved to the centre of the room and waited for Madam Pomfrey to join her.

The nurse waited patiently for over a minute, waiting for her to say something before clearing her throat.

"If you don't tell me what's wrong, I can't help fix it."

Dawn sighed reluctantly and started to speak.

"Can anything I discuss with you remain private?"

"Technically, I should tell your sister if it's something serious, but if you really want to I can keep anything we say confidential."

Dawn nodded nervously before continuing.

"We have all been so busy of late that I hardly noticed. I'm hoping that it's just stress related or something magical and not what I think it is."

"Go on," Instructed Madam Pomfrey.

"A certain someone who should have visited me a couple of weeks ago- didn't. Now I'm starting to wonder if..."

"Ah, I see," nodded the nurse, understanding. "Lay down on a bed while I scan you."

A few minutes and several different spells later she obviously came to a conclusion as she put her wand away.

"You suspicions were correct my dear, congratulations. You are as you suspected- pregnant."

________________________________________________________________________

As Dawn reached the Common Room she did what she could to calm herself before she entered, trying to act as though nothing was wrong. It had been hard enough earlier when she had found out from Pomfrey and panicked. She had had to try to convince Harry and Fleur mentally that nothing was wrong, whilst trying to hide the information in question from their worried thoughts. She was not very good at the mental thing; she was sure they knew she was hiding something, but had luckily neither decided to press the issue.

Taking a deep breath she spoke the password and stepped into the room.

It was still early so there were not many people occupying the room. Other than Harry and company, only Ginny and a few fifth years occupied the room; most people took longer to return to the Common Room after class. The others were sitting in their preferred seats by the fireplace.

"You know I'm sure those Potion Lessons get longer every week," complained Ron, from his seat on a sofa, next to Hermione and a pile of books. "It feels like we have been in that dungeon all day."

"Stop complaining," said Harry, as Dawn reached them and slid, slightly more slowly than normal, into his lap, while sliding her hands around his neck as his arms came around her. They had come to accept that they had to be in contact as much as possible and the more time they were in contact while they were awake, the less close they would have to be when they were asleep which was preferable as it meant Dawn could just sleep in the same bed as them while Harry and Fleur remained in contact, they had been getting progressively more relaxed about it, though they were still uncomfortable with the situation, but this evening Harry could tell, for some reason Dawn was more distracted than she had been before they left class. "Look on the bright side; at least you haven't got Potions again until Thursday."

"Oh thanks. That's really something to look forward to. Why couldn't you have thought of something fun?"

"I've got a few suggestions," Hermione said, as she got up from her seat (which was surrounded by now complete Homework) and slid into Ron's lap as Dawn had done, though they moved closer together and a little more relaxed about it. Dawn and Fleur had obviously had an influence on Hermione; she was a lot more flirtatious than she used to be (though Ron wasn't complaining) though such things still came second to her school work. It made some of them wonder what Dawn, Fleur or worse Colette trait she would start picking up next.

Ron raised an eyebrow at the brunette sitting in his lap. "Would you care to give me an example?"

"Certainly," she purred, leaning up to kiss him, ignoring the looks of jealousy sent their way by a lot of the Common Room.

The romance however was shattered a moment later by the sound of stone cracking and collapsing, an ear splitting scream and the sound of breaking wood.

The group spun around, jumping about a meter in the air because of the shock of what they saw.

Most of the rest of the Common Room had been smashed, Ginny (who had screamed) and the group of other 5th years were pinned against the opposing wall, all looking decidedly scared by the body of a Basilisk that was protruding out of a hole in the wall in front of them

The four drew their wands.

The basilisk spun around sending its Death glare in their direction.

Harry, Hermione and Ron immediately shielded their eyes to avoid the dreaded glare, Harry attempted to spin Dawn round as well but wasn't fast enough.

The Basilisks eyes were turned on her.

"DAWN!!" Harry cried.

But she did not fall.

She did not drop down dead.

She remained standing.

The others turned back, the Basilisks eyes had no effect on them either.

"What the- "

It roared raising its head to strike.

The four fired aimed spells.

"INCENDIO!"

The fire erupted from their wands creating a screen of flame in front of them.

The Basilisk screamed as its partially open mouth caught part of Hermione's large flame, Hermione tried to remember everything Adam had taught her, calling on her new Wiccan powers.

She raised her hand towards the fifth years.

"Come."

The fifth years flew from behind the monster and landed rather heavily behind the 6th years, the effort making Hermione slump slightly.

Harry transferred his wand to his left hand, reigniting his flame (albeit not as strongly) before reaching onto his back for his sword.

The Basilisk was beginning to look increasingly angry and was now attempting to smash into them with its body.

"You better do something quick Harry," Dawn cried, only Hermione noticed that Dawn's flame spell was green and almost as large as her own, the others were rather preoccupied with the Basilisk.

To her left Harry cut his flame and fired off a Patronus.

"Expecto Patronum!" he roared, as his stag launched itself at the Basilisk, knocking it of balance, which in hindsight they realised should not have worked as Patroni should only work on Dementor's and other dark creature or beings. A basilisk was just an animal.

Before the Basilisk could recover Harry nudged Hermione, gestured towards his sword, then to the beasts head. Nodding her understanding Hermione was ready for Harry's jump. Using her Wiccan magic she increased his speed and distance of flight so that he landed on the Basilisks head.

The creature reared, if Harry had not lost his balance and slipped onto the side of its head as it did so, he would have been instantly crushed as it smashed its head against the ceiling, the others gasped and ducked for cover in the shower of rubble and splinters as the creature continued to thrash around in an attempt to dislodge its passenger.

"Come on, Harry," she urged.

Only lucky twist of its head saw Harry land back on top of the creature's skill, aiming his wand he got in a lucky shot, his blasting hex smashing into the snakes eye, sending the contents spraying around the room, a large portion hitting Harry.

"That has got to be the most disgusting thing he has ever done," Ron groaned, as pieces of the eye and flesh that had hit him dripped off his clothes.

"Lovely," agreed Dawn, grimacing.

The Basilisk wailed, throwing its head about in pain. Harry only stayed mounted by plunging his sword through the now empty eye socket.

As the sword penetrated its brain the creature bucked wildly, sending Harry flying. By some pure fluke he landed on the sofa by the fire.

Dawn ran to his side just in time as the dying Basilisks head crashed down into the place where she had been standing.

"Are you alright?"

"I think so, nothing broken," he replied, heaving himself of the sofa. Looking down he saw that his clothes were coated with blood and bits of Basilisk eye and brain. "But I don't think I like this new look."

"That was very brave, Harry," Dawn smiled. "You would have to be to throw yourself at a giant snake."

"Do I get a reward?" Harry asked jokingly.

"Not after coating all of us in snake's eye," she laughed, temporarily forgetting the scary revelation that she had discovered earlier, several tons of angry snake made for an excellent distraction.

"Of all the creature attacks so far, that has got to have been the most difficult to solve," Harry groaned, casting a rough cleaning charm on his clothes removing most of the bits and just leaving him blood soaked.

"Oh, I don't know. From what I heard I heard, Fluffy caused quite a song and dance."

Grinning back at her, the pair walked over to where Hermione and Ron were tending to the fifth years and in particular a shaking Ginny, one of the fifth years had gone to get Dumbledore, Pomfrey and the others.

"Ginny, it's ok, it's gone," Harry comforted, kneeling in front of the shaking Weasley.

Ginny continues to shake.

"I'm really sorry Harry, I should have helped," she whispered. "But you know what I'm like with snakes."

"Don't worry about it Ginny. Hermione can you take her to the hospital wing, you'll probably meet Madam Pomfrey half way."

"Ok Harry," she replied, helping Ginny up with help from the remaining fifth years and Ron.

After they had passed through the portal Harry turned to retrieve his sword from the Basilisks head, as he leaned forward to remove the sword the Basilisk began to shrink allowing the sword to fall to the floor.

"Oh this can't be good," he groaned, as the snake's skin began to change from scales to flesh covered fabric.

"Almost certainly n-" started Dawn, before recognising the woman that the snake was turning into.

She was just shorter than Harry's height, appeared to be in her early to mid twenties, was wearing a tight fitting dress and her hair was long, blond and curly.

Feeling the bond flare with fear Harry turned and saw that Dawn had backed up into the sofa with a terrified look on her face, Harry moved to her side, summoning the sword to him and drawing his wand.

The woman's eyes turned to Harry before moving on to Dawn.

She smiled.

"Hey sweaty, guess who's back."

Looking briefly into Dawn's mind Harry found the information he needed. He now knew who this was; he had talked to Dawn about her past and he knew this was the person she feared above all others.

Glory.

"I wondered where my little green key had got to. Now it looks like I can take it for myself."

Harry stepped forward brandishing his sword dangerously.

"Well lookee here, you got some muscles helping you now. He's a bit skinny though, you could have got someone who at least looks a bit dangerous."

She moved forward.

"Protego," Harry cried, raising a shield in front of them.

Glory bounced of the shield.

"That was rude. Did no one ever teach you manners."

Glory punched the shield, causing it to collapse and Harry to recoil; his wand arm felt like someone had just slammed a sledge hammer into it.

Harry swung his sword, but Glory caught the blade in mid swing and threw it and Harry across the room to land on the upper floor in front of the dormitory, before she turned and began closing in on Dawn.

"Don't worry sweaty, it won't hurt much."

She reached down to grab Dawn.

"Repel!!"

Glory flew across the room as Tara's spell hit her as Hermione rushed into the room behind the Wiccan.

"Hey you crazy witch, have you lost your mind?...Oh wait, I lost if for you."

Glory ran at Dawn at super human speed before Hermione could reach her. Picking her up, she positioning her as a shield against further attacks.

"Would you like to try that again crazy girl, because I don't think my little key here would survive it."

Anne ran into the room and moved next to Hermione and Tara who were standing in front of the door.

"Oh, everyone stuck now, cause I think-"

"Waddiwasi!!"

The sofa flew through the air towards Glory and Dawn.

"Accio Dawn!!"

Dawn flew up out of the goddesses grasp; to be caught by Harry's arms as the sofa collided with Glory.

"Thanks," she panted, through her shaking and laboured breathing.

"You'll pay for that boy, I'll-"

She trailed of as she- it was changing again.

She got smaller, retaining a roughly human shape before solidifying as a girl of about seventeen/eighteen. She had long, black, wavy hair and wearing a long, old fashioned dress from two or three centuries before. As women go she was very quite beautiful.

She looked around until she saw the group in the doorway.

She smiled pleasantly; it was one of those smiles that illuminated the room.

"Hello," she greeted, cheerfully.

No one answered. They had got a Basilisk and a Hell God; they had no idea who she was, but they were not going to be deceived by appearances.

She started to walk calmly towards them; she stopped suddenly as she began to fade.

She looked at them again. "Looks like I have got to go. Tell him I was here."

She was almost totally gone.

"Wait," called Hermione. "Who are you?"

"Cossette."


	117. CH117 Angelic Messenger

Chapter 117 – Angelic Messenger

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date:1__st__ December 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Staffroom_

_Time:Evening_

The usual group had been gathered in the Staffroom. It consisted of the teachers, the remaining Scoobies, the main members of the DA and Draco.

Most of the teachers were seated on the sofas and armchairs around the room, Adam with his staff at his side is seated in the chair closest to the fireplace and is staring into the flames, while swirling his sliver disk between his fingers, to look at him you would think he was ignoring the conversation but they knew he was paying the utmost attention. Opposite him was Dumbledore. The students, Spike, Snape, Remus, Anne, Hagrid and Filch are standing or leaning against walls, scarily Snape and Spike were standing in the exact same posture.

"And then the Basilisk changed into Glory," Harry continued.

"Glory!!" shouted Anne, snapping in annoyance. "That's impossible, she's dead. Giles killed her."

"I don't think it was really her," Hermione suggested.

"Please explain Miss Granger," Dumbledore asked, placing the tips of his fingers against each other.

"Well from what Tara has told me, Glory didn't have much in the way of magical power, other than her physical strength and speed she was virtually a normal person."

Tara noticed she avoided mentioning Glory's mind sucking ability.

"As a result I don't think that was really Glory or a real Basilisk, especially as the snakes stare had no effect on us and as a Patronus was able to affect it."

"Well concluded Miss Granger," Dumbledore complemented, before leaning forward. For the first time most had ever seen, he looked his age. "I believe we have been very careless, the monster attacks have begun again; I foolishly hoped that whatever the cause it had ceased as we had had no attacks for several weeks and instead these school wide spells had commenced."

Most people were looking decidedly foolish, most of them had forgotten about the attacks after the recent mass spells.

"I believe it to be some sort of spell," commented Adam, not looking away from the fire. "As the Basilisk changed into Glory and as the stare of the Basilisks had no effect upon those present... I would guess that Fluffy, the troll, the spider and the Dementor were all also illusions, though obviously dangerous ones."

"I agree," Dumbledore confirmed, before turning back to the Gryffindor's. "Did anything else happen?"

"Yes, after throwing Harry across the room and getting hit by a sofa she... It changed again. It turned into another girl about seventeen or eighteen, wouldn't you say Tara?" Dawn explained.

"Yes, that sounds about right."

"She had long wavy raven hair was about five foot five wearing a white dress, the old fashioned type."

"I'd say eighteen century," Hermione contributed.

"Yes, she looked... Well...Innocent, would probably be the best word. She didn't look like she had an evil bone in her body and she looked like she could make anyone smile."

"It's strange," Hermione commented. "So far the spells have only assumed the shapes of dangerous creatures or beings and this girl couldn't have been either."

"Did this girl say anything, anything that might tell us who she is or was?"

"Yes," answered Harry. "She said 'Hello', we didn't answer. She then said 'Looks like I have got to go, tell him I was here', then Hermione asked who she was and she said Cossette."

Just as Dumbledore went to reply, there was a ringing sound of something small and metal hitting stone.

All eyes turned to the source of the noise.

Adam who had been sitting starring into the fire while twirling his disk had frozen and dropped the disk to the floor. He began to shake and convulse violently, his head falling back and his eyes rolled in their sockets.

Pomfrey, Hermione, Tara, Harry, Fleur, Dawn and Dumbledore moved to his side in an instant.

"Adam? ADAM? What's wrong with him?" screamed Hermione.

"I don't know," answered Pomfrey.

Adam's image began to flicker, his skin fluctuated between scarred and clean, his eye flickering between coloured and white and his arm and eye fluctuated in and out of existence, his hair changed from a full head covering to only a few strands all of which were long and white. His image finally settling on eyeless, armless, almost hairless, scarred and blind, there was a loud ringing sound as his ring fell of a now nonexistent finger.

"What on Earth is happening to him," muttered Remus as he, Spike and Hagrid as the strongest in the room (werewolf strength and senses can be accessed while in human form) moved forward to try to stop Adam's convulsing from injuring himself or those trying to help him, even their combined strength couldn't stop him flailing around.

"We must get him to the hospital wing quickly," commanded Madam Pomfrey

Hermione drew her wand and attempted to cast a body bind but the spell bounced off.

"What the hell," gasped Ron, dodging out of the way of the spell, as he moved and Neville moved over to them and started wrestling with Adam's arms.

"Just pick him up," ordered Spike, struggling with a leg.

"Merlin, how strong is he?" growled Neville, just before the stump of Adam's arm whacked him in the face, sending him flying.

"No time to talk; get him to the hospital wing, NOW!!"

________________________________________________________________________

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date:1__st__ December 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Hospital Wing_

_Time:Evening_

In the Hospital Wing minutes later, after fighting to get Adam to the Hospital Wing he finally stopped convulsing, but he continued to jerk around, muttering words though he was in unconscious state, he repeated the same few words over and over again as if repeating the same nightmare.

"Cossette."

"Kimberly."

"Sworn to protect."

"James."

"Sara."

"Charles."

"Forgive me."

These words he wailed out, as if begging for forgiveness from someone unknown.

What was even more confusing was the fact that the perfectly calm weather that they had had minutes earlier, had turned into a violent storm the moment that Adam had started convulsing.

"How is he, Madam Pomfrey?" asked Dumbledore, as he and most of the group stood or sat around Adam's shaking form.

"I don't know Headmaster; none of my potions have had any effect. I have already asked Severus if he knows anything more obscure that can cure him, he's going to bring me some within the hour, but what I can tell you is he is getting weaker by the second, something is killing him, but I have no idea what it is."

"Professor Maclay," he said, turning to Tara, who along with Hermione was sitting on one side of Adam's bed, while Fleur, Dawn and Harry sat on his other side with Fleur holding Adam's hand. "Do you know any Wiccan magic that could help him?"

"I'm sorry Headmaster, I don't."

"This is very troubling," Dumbledore stated, gravely. "We need to discover what that name means to him. Professor Maclay, Miss Granger could you please go through Adam's room and see if you can find anything that could in anyway explain what ails our friend?"

"Yes Professor."

________________________________________________________________________

After less than thirty minutes Tara and Hermione had gone through every desk, cupboard and draw in Adam's suite and apart from discovering that other than his, clothes, book and a selection of weapons there was absolutely nothing else there at all, and especially nothing that could be of use other than the book, which seemed to be having an identity crisis.

When they discovered it in one of the draws, it had been jumping, fidgeting and rattling around so much that Hermione thought it was a boggart. They had only managed to open it for about three seconds before it slammed shut again and refused to reopen, but during that time they had seen the wording in side moving, erasing, writing, rewriting, un-writing and altering itself.

The only other things that they had managed to get were off of Adam person, his watch, another large selection of weapons, a few vials of liquids, his vault key, his staff, his signet ring (the ring which Adam had used to open his vault) and his and Sara's wedding rings, they suspected there was more in his cloak but they could not access all the compartments.

Dumbledore tried again to look through his journal and managed to keep it open for a few second longer this time, before it again resealed itself. All they managed to learn this time was that, judging by the dates that they managed to read, was that the journal must contain record of all Adam's movements over the last fifteen billion years.

They had no chance of finding anything of use before it is too late.

________________________________________________________________________

_Dimension:1375 – Earth_

_Date:2__nd__ December 2001 AD_

_Country:Britain – Scotland_

_Location:Hogwarts – Hospital Wing_

_Time:Early Morning_

That night in the Hospital Wing, all the lights are out and only a single candle illuminates the room.

Hermione was sitting by Adam's bed, her head resting on a copy of Dumbledore's book on the Guardian where she has fallen asleep out of exhaustion. She had been reading there ever since Tara and Willow who she had been researching in the Library with earlier had nodded off about six hours previously, she had levitated them back to the Scoobies Common Room where she found most of the rest of the group also sleeping, books on their laps or on the floor where they had fallen as they dozed off. After leaving them on a sofa, she had come down and relieved Harry, Fleur and Dawn of 'guard duty' over Adam.

It had just past midnight and the ringing of the clock on the wall had startled her from sleep, her sudden movement blowing out the candle.

She looked around noticing the time on the clock and internally scolding herself for falling asleep, Adam's life was in danger and she was here sleeping.

She was about to get up to light the candle again when a light appeared through one of the high windows.

It grew to be so bright that she had to avert her eyes for several seconds. As she became accustomed to the new brightness, she managed to refocus on the source.

Hermione stood as a ball of the while light floated through the window and moved to hover at the end of Adam's bed. If she did not know better, she would have sworn that the ball was looking at Adam, if that was even possible for a ball of light. It then floated to the end of the ward before the light expanded to fill the entire end of the Wing in a flash of illumination.

The light dazzled Hermione who winced at the brightness, having been in almost absolute darkness before the light appeared. After her eyes finally adjusted to a new level of brightness for the second time, she saw a figure step out of the brightness. He was tall about six foot (why did everyone have to be so tall) with curly reddish brown hair which hung around his face.

He also had blue eyes and was wearing a black shirt, tie, trousers and shoes along with a black business coat.

For a split second before he fully stepped out of the light Hermione could have sworn that she had seen a pair of glowing white wings, but dismissed it as a trick of the light.

As she studied the man closer she realised that he looked very familiar.

The man from her dream, the one that lead them to rescue Adam, as she looked at him the light behind him died down and seemed to flow into him leaving him with a soft glow which would not even have been perceivable in daylight.

He moved towards Adam, Hermione automatically moved in front of Adam defensively, though she did not draw her wand.

He came to as stop in front of her

"You need not fear me Gailcyll; I will not harm him."

"Who are you?"

"You already know, I am a messenger and a guide," he answered, comfortingly.

"A messenger of whom?" she asked, still not completely trusting him.

"To the gods," he answered, humbly.

"How do I know I can trust you?" she asked, suspiciously.

"I have already aided you twice in your short life, why would you not trust me when I actually appear to you in person?"

It was then that Hermione recognised his voice; his was the voice in her head the night of the Halloween Ball.

"Wha- What is your name?" she asked, cautiously.

"I am known by many names; my masters calls me Menta, other of my kind call me Tirnion, but most on this plane call me Charles."

"Charles?"

"Yes Gailcyll."

"Gailcyll?" she asked.

"That is what the High Ones are calling you; you were unexpected so they had to find something to call you."

Somehow she understood what Gailcyll meant but she did not know why.

"Light Bearer?"

"You hold the light of the Guardian within you," he explained, before moving to Adam's side and kneeling and placing a hand above Adam's head. A white light emanated from his palm, his eyebrows clenched in concentration, after a few seconds Adam seemed to visibly relax, though he still looked very bad.

"He is near death, I have managed to slow his deterioration but I do not have the power to completely heal him," he explained, removing his hand and starring at Adam, sadly. "Oh Tutela, what have you let happen to you this time?"

"He didn't let anything happen; it was whoever cast that magical beast spell," Hermione answered angrily, jumping to Adam's defence.

"On the contrary, young one. Although the caster is partially responsible, Adam must also take a share of the blame."

Hermione looked at him demanding an explanation for the accusation.

"I will explain all, but firstly we need to gather together your friends and teachers, they will all be needed if we want to save him."

Looking through the window, she realised that it was morning as the dawn shone through the windows engulfing the room in its refreshing light.

Hermione wondered how on Earth it was morning already; it seemed like it had been midnight mere minutes earlier.

At this point Dumbledore and Tara walked into the room. Upon seeing the stranger both drew their wands.

"NO!!" cried Hermione, but too late.

Two stunners cursed towards Charles.

She moved to throw herself in the way, but a hand extended and caught her before she could move.

The stunners collided with Charles, but had no effect upon him. Charles released Hermione's.

"Mortal spells have no effect on someone of my rank, Gailcyll," he told a very startled Hermione.

He then moved towards the new arrivals.

"Suilannad Galanor. Suilannad Professor Dumbledore, dark is the hour of our meeting."

"May I ask who you are to have accessed this school without my knowledge?"

"I am a messenger of the gods, I am mostly known as Charles, as a servant of the gods I am more powerful than the system protecting your school."Hhe looked back at Adam before returning to look at the new arrivals. "Even those cast by our fallen comrade do not restrict me. If you doubt me ask Gailcyll...I apologize, ask Hermione and she will confirm that I am who I say I am."

Dumbledore looked to Hermione.

"It's true; he was the one in my dream, the one who told me about Adam being held captive."

The Headmaster nodded turning back to Charles

"Why have you come to my school?"

"Two reasons have brought me here. Firstly, I intend to break the Spell of Fears and release Hogwarts from its influence and secondly the gods have ordered me to help you save the Guardian before he passes beyond all aid."

________________________________________________________________________

TRANSLATION:

Menta - The Messenger

Tutela - Guardian

Gailcyll – Light Brearer

Suilannad Galanor - Greetings Sun Bearer

There was an additional bit of text needing translation but I will not translate it yet because it will reveal future plot details.


	118. CH118 Pain, Death & Despair

Chapter 118 – Pain, Death & Despair

_Dimension: 1375 – Earth_

_Date: 2__nd__ December 2001 AD_

_Country: Britain – Scotland_

_Location: Hogwarts – Staffroom_

_Time: Morning_

An hour later almost everyone was gathered in the staff room including their new quest, only Madam Pomfrey was not present as she was watching over Adam with a large portion of the DA who had opted to guard him in their absence; Charles has been introduced to all and was busy explaining the _Spell of Fears_.

"How does this Spell of Fears work?" asked a confused Remus. "And how did it come to be cast upon Adam?"

"The spell locks onto someone's fears and focuses on them, enhancing them quietly and subtly until they reach the point where the spell is ready to release all those fears at once."

"Is that why the spell became Glorificus and the basilisk when Ginny and Dawn were there?" asked Fleur, from her position on Harry's lap.

"That was the effect of their presence, though that should not have happened at all."

"Could you elaborate?" asked Dumbledore.

"Unfortunately for your school, the caster or casters, whoever he, she or they were, was not able to cast the spell very well, which is why the troll, dementor and acromantula appeared. It's not the easiest thing in the world to explain but this analogy is the best I can come up with; When one of your wands gets damaged it spells are not as effective as they were and can have strange side effects, it is the same with a badly cast spell, the curse effectively leaked out and was triggered by other people's fears, though as the spell was badly cast the creatures did not normally appear right next to the people that feared them."

Hermione thought back, now she understood the cause she could make the connections, when the spider appeared Ron was nearby, when the Dementor appeared Harry was near and she was close when the troll attacked Ginny and Draco, though noticeably, none of those times did the creatures appear right next to them.

"Do you have any idea who cast the spell?" asked Dumbledore.

"I'm afraid not and I would not be allowed to tell you even if I knew."

"Why not?" asked Tara.

"Because even though the idea for the spell was undoubtedly James's, he did not cast it and therefore it is a mortal issue not a higher one and I am ordered not to interfere," he explained, he was obviously not overly pleased by not being allowed to act on information known or otherwise.

"And how often do you obey disobey those orders?" Anne asked, getting the feeling that she was pushing her luck.

He turned to her with a raised eyebrow and an amused expression.

"Not as often as I should, but I have been told to obey them by beings I respect and thus I shall."

"How do we go about saving Professor Berio?" asked Harry, changing the subject.

"Berio?" Charles asked confused.

"Adam...He called himself Berio-Megiltura when he first came to teach here," Ginny explained.

Upon hearing the full name Charles smiled, obviously understanding some meaning in the name that the others were not aware of.

"Firstly, I need to explain what is wrong with him in order for you to understand how we can cure him. He is suffering from what could be described as schizophrenia; he has withdrawn into his mind."

"What, why?" questioned Tara.

"Because he can no longer withstand the pain of reality...This has happened once before and Sara the Estelcyll brought him back from the brink."

"What does Estelcyll mean?" inquired Harry.

"Hope bringer," replied Hermione and Tara simultaneously.

The entire population of the room stared at them most in confusion only Charles looked pleased that they had answered.

"I'm glad your mastery of your new abilities is proceeding well, that language is a horrible language to try to learn the normal way."

"What is that language?" asked Hermione.

"It is the language that beings more powerful or more pure than humans use. It is considered to be a sort of universal language for higher beings."

"Oh," Tara replied.

"Wait," began Hermione, realising something. "Wasn't Sara his wife?"

There were several gasps of surprise at this news, only Charles and Draco remained silent. It was obvious no one expected to hear this bit of news; none of the others had any idea that Adam had been married.

"Yes, before she was taken from him by batros demons."

Harry actually growled as the name was spoken.

"You've come across them before," Charles acknowledged. "You did well against them; they are not easy to defeat. As I was saying; Sara brought him back, when she had rescued him from his mind, they fell in love and were married until..."

"How did she bring him back?" questioned Remus, preventing the hanging sentence from becoming an awkward pause.

"She went into his mind and managed to pull him back, but this time it is far worse."

"Why?" asked Tara

"Last time this happened it was because Adam had- He had done something terrible, something he hadn't meant and had no control over, but he blamed himself nonetheless and his mind fell in on itself in despair. This time he did not send himself into this state, his mind was literally overthrown with grief, it doesn't help that his mind was never exactly stable when it happened anyway."

"What do you mean?" asked Dumbledore.

"Are any of you familiar with _Maslow's Pyramid_?"

"Vaguely," nodded Hermione. "It's a theory of psychology that shows different levels of human needs, you must complete one level to move onto the next."

"Essentially correct," nodded Charles. "Simply it shows different levels of needs, the basic pyramid has five levels. The first level is physiological needs like food, water, sleep, breathing, excretion, health and sex. The basic needs of an individual, if we took most of the adults in the school I think it is safe to say that they would have most of these needs fulfilled. The second level is safety needs comprising of personnel security, security of employment or financial security, of health and wellbeing and a safety net against accidents and illnesses. Again most adults in the school will feel relatively safe, have a secure work future, will be healthy and will have proper medical care if anything goes wrong. The third level is social needs consisting of friendship, intimacy and family, all emotional not physical like on previous levels. Yet again most people will have these, I don't think I need to go further up the pyramid as I think I will be able to describe the problem just using those three levels."

He paused momentarily before continuing.

"As he is not mortal you might say these needs don't apply, but as he was born mortal they fit and his mind instinctively thinks they should be needed. The first level; food, water, sleep, breathing, excretion, health and sex. Adam does not need to eat, he does not need water, he does not need to excrete and he does not breathe."

"What do you mean he does not breathe?" asked Tara.

"Have you ever felt his pulse?"

"Only when we rescued him and he was dead for a few moments."

"Yes, he was dead then, but if you had continued to check his pulse or whether he inhales and exhales you would not have noticed any change. When the gods created him they gave him his body as it was when he died but they did not bring his body back to life."

"Why not?" asked Dumbledore.

"Human bodies are easily damaged and are extremely fragile, you have seen what his body looks like, if he were alive he would die almost instantly, therefore the health aspect of the first level is irrelevant. He is effectively possessing his own body, six sevenths of the first level are irrelevant to him though as he was born a human he deep down still expects to need them, for the most party only those in third world countries don't have the first level complete, the only part that actually affects Adam is sex and since Sara he has not been with anyone. Second level; personnel security, security of employment, of health and wellbeing and a safety net against accidents and illnesses. He is hunted by the demons of hell; he is constantly battling, fighting struggling against evil, only those against him and those who created him have more power and they don't protect him. Employment; if you call spending your entire existence fighting employment? Health and wellbeing, again non-applicable, his body gets cut and stabbed, he will feel it but it won't kill him, only magical weapons and attacks will kill him."

"How can he die if he is already dead?" interrupted Draco.

"He died; or rather he departed after you rescued him because of the culmination of all those magical weapons he was attacked with. As for a safety net, who is going to fill that role? I don't think I need to continue to the third level but I will. Intimacy, again not since Sara, family he has none left and friends, because of the length of his life he has lost more than most will ever have, he has some immortal friends but not that many. The first three levels of the pyramid apply to him, but either he cannot fulfil the need or because of his condition they do not apply, the very basis for a stable mind is utterly smashed."

"You said his mind was overcome with grief. Grief from what?" asked Ron

Charles turned to him slowly a sad expression on his face. "One thing the Gods learned from creating Adam is that immortality is the worst curse to inflict upon any being that was born mortal."

"Why?" asked Harry.

"Imagine your life expectancy is one hundred years; You grow up, go to school, make friends, go to work, get married, have children, become a pensioner, grow old, have grandchildren and then die of old age. A pretty standard life, now imagine being given immortality after being brought up knowing that you are mortal, you do most of those things, you go to school, make friends, go to work, get married, have children, have grandchildren, watch your other half die of old age, watch your friends die of old age, have great-grandchildren, make new friends, watch your children die, watch your grandchildren die, watch your new friends die, watch your great grandchildren have children and watch them all grow old and die. Are you getting the picture?"

"Oh God!!" Hermione exclaimed.

"And all that would have happened in just a few hundred years, imagine that over billions of years."

"A dance of Mayflies," remarked Dumbledore.

"Quite so."

"Mayflies?" asked Draco

"Mayflies are an insect that only live in their adult form for one day to breed before they die," explained Tara. "Twenty four hours is a short time for us, for Mayflies it's their entire adult life. We are like mayflies compared to Adam."

"Adam is fifteen billion years old," continued Charles. "In that time he has seen and done things most of us can't even contemplate; he has seen more horrors and despairs that anyone should ever have to see."

"Dare I ask the question, like what?'" pressed Ron.

"I will not even begin to describe the horrors he's seen, but I will say this: that man has outlived almost every other being he has ever come across. He had fought in so many battles, so many wars and killed so many enemies that all the losses from your First World War are but a drop in the ocean. He has seen good friends come and go, some dying of old age, most dying in battle. He lost everything when his world was destroyed, his friends, his parents, his grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, pets, his sister, his entire world. He has fought in wars between good and evil since the dawn of time. He has seen fellow soldiers, comrades murdered before his very eyes. He created himself a new home it was destroyed, he got a wife and she was taken from him, he made a brother and he was turned dark and he has lost people he has sworn to protect and he has still kept on going. Fifteen billion years of pain, death and despair. Could you go through that unaltered?"

Silence reigned in the room for at least a minute before any made a sound.

"He is unbelievably altruistic and that doesn't even begin to describe him. For his own good, Adam should have left the moment he got here, but he stayed to help and protect you. He should never have had to endure the pain that this world brings up in him; there are too many things here that remind him of his past, too many memories that have been stirred up. The ring that he gave to his wife and the bearer of the ring who bears a passing resemblance to a young version of his wife."

Ginny was looking decidedly guilty at this point, she obviously had no idea that the ring had belonged to his wife.

"The destruction of the chest of personal affects in his vault."

"Oh God," Anne exclaimed.

"The fact that he blames himself for the capture of himself and more importantly the ring bearer."

"Oh no," Ginny whispered, still trying to look as though she wasn't there, Draco placed a comforting hand around her shoulder.

"And that he blames himself for the trouble that Glory caused during his absence from Sunnydale. He blames himself for Tara's mind getting absorbed, the Watchers getting injured, not being there to help cure Mrs Summers when it was within his power to do so."

Tara, Hermione and Ginny were now all crying and were leaning or being held by Draco, Ron and Remus as he was closest to Tara.

"And then there is the presence of the Key."

All eyes flicked to Dawn, whose eyes were now bulging.

"What! What have I done? I didn't even touch him."

"It is not what you have done; it is the fact that you are here. You remember I said that he had lost people he had sworn to protect."

Several people nodded.

"During the French Civil War in the eighteenth century, he had sworn to protect the Key as The First's attention had been drawn to it. He spent over one hundred years doing nothing else. When The First's attention had moved away from the Key and when he thought it was safe for it to leave his protection, he left to continue his duties elsewhere, unfortunately after he left, the Key or to be more precise the form it had been in at the time was destroyed, he has never forgiven himself. There is one more thing that I have to explain but I need to check that some of you can be told about it first and for that I need to discuss it with a select few of you beforehand. Can I ask everyone except Madam Pomfrey, Professor's Dumbledore, McGonagall, Fontaine, Maclay, Summers, Miss Granger and Mr Malfoy to wait outside for a moment please."

After a little confused mumbling amongst some of the members before the others began filtering out. Once the door has closed Charles resumed.

"Strictly speaking I just lied to them, only three of them must not be told and that is because they are linked."

"Harry, Fleur and Dawn you mean?" asked Colette.

"Correct, you can tell the rest later, I just don't want those three to be singled out. The problem is Comtesse Delacour."

"Fleur?" asked Dumbledore. "Does this relate to the mating?"

"Correct again. The problem is that in order to keep her alive he has to stay close to her, but in doing so he is killing himself."

"How?" asked Hermione.

"A while ago he made a deal with the Gods that he could only be brought back from the dead so many times as long as the deaths were not suicide, one time over that amount and he would remain dead and move on, in exchange he would do the job he was created for."

"He has died before?" asked Madam Pomfrey.

"Yes. In fifteen billion years of war it's inevitable you will lose occasionally. He died earlier this year in this very castle. It was unfortunate that he did as he is now on his last life, it he dies again it will be for good."

"How is he dying?" inquired Tara.

"You are aware of the bond that ties Lord Potter, Comtesse Delacour and now Miss Summers together means that they each hold a bit of each other's soul," at their nods he continued. "Adam had a similar bond with his wife before she... Since then he has had to forcibly keep the two soul halves he has apart as both halves are screaming out to be reconnected with the halves that resided inside Sara. The pain of such a split should have caused Adam to die, but because the gods need him they refused to let him crossover for that as it was effectively self induced by choosing to be with Sara. As such he had to separate off the Sara portion of the soul and bury it deep where he couldn't feel its pain as there was nothing he could do about it."

"What about his half?" asked Anne.

"He couldn't bury that, he needs a soul, even just half of one, but it too cries out, both for its missing half and the half of Sara's that it is separated from. By staying close to Comtesse Delacour in order to keep her alive and by extension, Lord Potter and Miss Summers, he is effectively torturing himself; his half a soul interprets it as him trying to be unfaithful, usually this would make him magically ill as your mated group will get if they stay apart for an extended period before deteriorating until they die, but as he is voluntarily staying close to her it again counts as suicide in the eyes of the gods, as such they will not let him die and the magic is aging his decaying body and causing him harm at the same time."

"What can we do?" asked Madam Pomfrey.

"He was already doing it, trying to find a way to satisfy the mating call of Comtesse Delacour so that she does not need him, but that will take time. Firstly we need to remove the spell that put him in this state and that has been causing the mass emotional spells that have been occurring here."

"How are they related?" asked Dumbledore.

"They are a side effect of the spell that is upon him, every so often his body would emit a powerful wave of magic infused with an emotion that would be passed onto the majority of those it came in contact with, this type of event is called a _Primal Sin Surgel_ as the spells are normally those that religions consider to be the most dangerous like lust, greed, wrath, etcetera. The mass spells would have continued until the curse upon him was triggered."

"Is that the reason he could not detect the spells source?" asked Hermione. "Because it was emanating from him."

"Quite so."

"How do we remove the spell?"

"We need to perform an exorcism, but I will explain more once everyone else is back in the room, I say again that Comtesse Delacour and those mated to her must not learn of Adam's mating until the situation is resolved as that may cause them to do something rash to protect him and that will cause harm to them and Adam will not want that."

After the others had filed back in and resumed their seats, Charles continued.

"We have decided that the information for now must remain secret, we will be able to tell you at a later date, but not now. As I was just saying to the Headmaster we need to perform an exorcism on Adam to remove the spell from his mind."

"Exorcisms are only for possessions," replied Ron, challengingly. He, along with many of the others were not pleased about not being informed about what had just been but discussed but most were trying to continue as normal.

"Yes and Adam is possessing his own body. When we manage to pull him out of his body he should, as he is not in control of his possession, separate out into his magical parts like his soul halves, his mind etcetera, and begin to disperse. We should be able to remove the spell from him and reassemble him before we try to heal him."

"How do we do that?" asked Tonks.

"They say that dreams are the windows of the soul, take a peek and you can see the inner workings. That is what two people have to do, go inside his mind."

The surprises just keep on coming.

"Who?" asked Remus

"The two people on this plane he trusts more than anyone else, the people who now bear his power."

Hermione and Tara snapped their eyes to Charles.

"What?" they both exclaimed, before Tara continued. "Why us?"

"Because you are the two people here, not including myself that know him best, I cannot do it because I will be bridging the gap between your minds and his, in addition we haven't seen each other in a very long time, but most importantly, as I said this time the problem is more serious, there is an outside factor."

"What outside factor?" asked Harry

* * *

FLASHBACK – Chapter 90 – Tara's Mission

McGonagall placed her own hand and Adam's on the book as the Sunnydale crew did the same.

Pointing her wand at it she called out:

"Portus."

And they vanished.

As James slowly got to his feet he surveyed the damage to the building.

He smiled.

"You haven't won yet, brother...You may think you hold all the cards, but I still have an ace up_ your_ sleeve."

END FLASHBACK

* * *

"James!" exclaimed Tara.

"Yes, he placed the trigger for the _Spell of Fears_ inside of Adam. Its full name is G_owest Achas Anann Chelles_; a _Compound Fear Time Trigger_."

"What in Merlin's name does that do?" asked Hagrid.

"Simply, it triggers a _Spell of Fears_. A word is used as a trigger to activate the curse causing the mind to overload, the longer the curse is in the mind before it is activated, the deeper it goes and the more devastating the effect when it is triggered..._Cossette_ was the trigger word and as the curse was placed on him during his kidnapping the result has been devastating."

"Oh my god," exclaimed Tara. "All this time he has been living with it in his brain and he didn't even know."

"James was very clever when he placed the trigger within him and when he got whoever it was to put the spell on him, which I am guessing happened around the same time. He insured that no higher being could enter his mind while the spell was in effect, which is also why the two of you need to go," he said looking to Tara and Hermione. "You might have some of the powers of an immortal, but you are still mortal yourselves."

"How do we go about doing that?" asked the latter.

"We need a lot of magic and the best way to get a lot of magic is form a coven, to be more precise a particular kind of coven."

"Could you elaborate a bit?" asked Remus.

"We need to set up what is called a _Collective Magic Coven_, which is where we collect together as many kinds of magic as we can in the coven and the more powerful and more varied the better, also luckily the coven doesn't have to be just witches, that's just a myth, which is fortunate as many of the people I planned to be a part of it are male."

"Who did you have in mind?" asked Dumbledore.

"Obviously Tara, Hermione and I must be in the group, we represent angelic and higher magic's as well as wiccan magic and some of the elemental skills. As covens require thirteen members that leaves another ten spaces to be filled. Firstly I was hoping Professor Summers would help and bring slayer magic to the coven, also Professor Lupin would bring the power of lycanthropy, Professor McGonagall her animagus abilities, the younger Miss Summers her key magic, Professor Hagrid the power present in his giant DNA, Professor Tonks her metamorphmagus abilities, Comtesse Delacour, her veela abilities and Lord Potter for his elemental skills and his magical ability."

"I don't think there will be any problems with any of those," Dumbledore remarked.

"I was also hoping Lord Potter could convince Dobby to fill one of the gaps, I don't think anyone has ever even considered a House Elf for such a ritual before but his magic is totally different from all the others mentioned."

"That should be easy," commented Harry. "He'd jump off a cliff if I ask him."

There were several chuckles from various corners of the room.

"Lastly, I was hoping the Headmaster would complete the circle as he would represent a powerful source of magic, unaffected by any other form of magic, who is also very skilled at his craft, it is always useful to have someone who is and I hope you will forgive the term a Pureblood wizard with no other magical of blood factors to interfere."

"Is that everyone?" asked Professor Flitwick.

"Almost," answered Charles. "Although all thirteen positions are filled, I want to create an outer ring; it serves a similar purpose to the first; providing the magical power to enter someone's mind, but unlike the inner ring the outer ring will be able to move while the rite is being performed. The inner ring are effectively a ground for Hermione and Tara, the outer ring provide a ground for the inner, in addition they will be able to defend us if any one attacks while the rite is being performed."

"Who do you want to be in this outer ring?" asked Flitwick. "As I would be happy to volunteer."

"I was hoping you would Professor Flitwick, your goblin blood while not in the inner ring would still be routed through the inner into the link as well as your duelling skill if things go wrong."

'I will help in any way I can, Sir," said the Charms Professor, bowing slightly.

Charles smiled.

"Hey, wait!" cried Ron. "What about us? If my girlfriends going into someone's mind I'm going to be standing by her side."

"Yeah," cried Colette, Draco, Ginny, Neville, the other DA members and close friends of those in the inner ring.

"Do not worry, I had not forgotten you, you are all going to be included in the outer ring as well as the rest of the DA if they will help."

"I'm sure they will," Harry assured them.

"Excellent. Is there anything else?" asked the Headmaster.

"That is everyone we are going to need but the location is also important for such a rite."

"Where would you suggest?" asked Remus.

"As we are entering the mind of someone so powerful, we need as much power as possible to enter the mind and to protect the minds of those inside Adam's mind, we are going to gain a lot of power from the two rings but we need a location that will focus that power, the best place will be Salisbury Plain."

Hermione thought for a moment before realising where he meant.

"Stonehenge?"

"Exactly, it is a focusing point of magical energies; in addition, the henge itself has defences that should protect us for a while. Any questions?"

"When do we do it?" Ron asked.

"We cannot waste any time, the longer that Adam stays like this the harder it will be to get him back, I'd say if possible tomorrow."

"I'll do what I can," said Dumbledore. "For now, I suggest everyone involved gets a good night's rest, we are going to need it."

* * *

TRANSLATION: Estelcyll – Hope Bringer

AUTHORS NOTE: Hi all, how many of you thought I had given up writing this story? Sorry for the long delay since the last update, but I think I jinxed myself sometime around June and since then every conceivable problem I could have had since has occurred; firstly my computer died shortly after the last update (luckily I keep backups) and I then spent 3 months struggling with the company who sold me the parts who insisted that they worked when in fact they didn't, then someone crashed into my car, it got written off, I got whiplash, there were problems with my new car, my workload at work drastically increased when people retired and....I could go on but I don't want to bore you anymore than I already have done. I probably won't be updating much anymore on this story as I have several other projects both writing and non-writing related which I am finding more interesting/challenging but I shall do what I can. Enjoy.


	119. CH119 Adam 10

Chapter 119 – Adam 1.0

_Dimension: 1375 – Earth_

_Date: 3__rd__ December 2001 AD_

_Country: Britain – England_

_Location: Salisbury Plain – Stonehenge_

_Time: Before Dawn_

All the people involved in the rite were walking towards Stonehenge.

Dobby had been ridiculously easy to convince, as expected he literally jumped at the chance of aiding his master. The DA group had also been only too pleased to assist one of their favourite teachers.

It was just before dawn and it was quite the collection of people who approached Stonehenge through the dew covered grass of the morning:

An angelic messenger, a witch slayer, a werewolf, an animagus, a key, a half giant, a metamorphmagus, a house-elf, a quarter veela , a boy-who-lived, a well aged headmaster and two witches with additional powers. Not to mention the rest of the DA and the other few people who were making up the outer ring, all of whom were armed with wands and hand to hand weapons of every variety.

They all went completely unnoticed by the Muggles driving along the roads not far from the ancient monument thanks to the wards in place around the site.

And floating between all the above was a very incomplete guardian with all his weapons and possession gathered around him as per Charles's orders. At the head of the column were Hermione and Tara who were being told what they would have to do and what they might face in Adam's mind.

"Remember, you have to get in and get out as quickly as you can, the Headmaster does not want to leave the school unprotected for long, even with a large amount of the Order present and copious quantities of aurors defending it."

"How many aurors were there when we left?" asked Hermione

"Including the reinforcements, fifty thanks to Minister Bones. Plus the eleven other members of the Order and the remaining teachers."

As they approached the ruins a question appeared in Hermione's mind.

"Charles, if I'm called Gailcyll, 'the Light Bearer', then why is Tara, Galanor, 'the Sun Bearer'? We both have the same powers why do we have different names?"

Charles smiled.

"In my opinion it shows conclusive proof that the Gods have a sense of humour," he explained as they passed into the earth mound surrounding the henge and passed the Slaughter Stone. "You are called Light Bearer as you bear the 'light', the power of the Guardian within you that you received as a reward for saving Adam. You are called 'Bearer' because you bear Adam's power and 'Light Bearer' because that is part of his power that you bear, now when it came to naming Tara they couldn't call her 'Light Bearer' as well, so to avoid confusion, when they came to naming you," he said, turning to Tara, "They decided to name you after your home...The Valley of the Sun."

"Sunnydale."

"Exactly, but then here comes the second bad bit of humour they decided to create a double entendre and also make it a reference to your hair colour, golden blond hair, and the colour of the sun."

"And that's supposed to be funny?" asked Tara sceptically, Hermione was also sending him a sceptical look.

"I didn't say it was funny, I just said it proves that the Gods had a sense of humour...Albeit a bad one."

They walked through the outer ring of sarsen stones into the centre among the large trilithons. When later recounting the tale to those that did not know the shape of the henge, those present would describe its appearance like this:

"Ignoring the few stones scattered around the perimeter the furthest out of the main structure was a ring of sarsen trilithons, which are very hard roughly rectangular shaped stones arranged with two standing vertically with a third balancing on top of them. Within them was a ring of small blue stones, not half the height of a man. Thirdly a horseshoe of five taller sarsen trilithons with an extremely tall trilithon in the middle resided inside those and finally another ring of small Blue Stones."

Unfortunately less than half the original number of stones of the outer rings remained with barely any of the outer ring remaining at all in the South and South West only the outer ring of smaller blue stones remained there, though many were still missing. The innermost ring of blue stones was also almost completely gone, the only ring that even had half its stones standing was the inner sarsen ring where eight of the original fifteen stones were left upright.

From the centre of the rings they could really see the state of ruin the stones were in, the sadness could be seen on Charles's face. Where the inner horse shoe of stones used to be only three of the five trilithons were left standing; the largest trilithon had lost one of the supports and the lintel both of which were lying fallen in front of the remaining upright stone.

"Lay him in the middle among the inner ring of blue stones with his weapons and possession around him then I want the Inner Ring group to sit in a circle around him, myself, Tara and Hermione will sit in front of the alter stone."

They laid Adam down and sat down as the DA group returned from checking the perimeter.

"Can those in the outer ring stand outside the horseshoe but inside the outer ring of blue stones...or what is left of them anyway."

As the outer ring of people moved into position, the inner ring sat and held hands, for Dobby it was a bit of a stretch but he also had to be very careful not to get sat on as he was next to Hagrid.

Unlike the last exorcism they performed this one was much more straight forward with a lot less artefacts and tools, just a ring of people, the one who was being exorcised and the one who was performing the exorcism.

"Everybody ready?" asked Charles. At their nods he began, chanting in a tongue that only Hermione and Tara could understand.

There were several seconds of nothing before light erupted from the stones, the light from each ring extended upwards and made a dome over the area inside, five domes were created, four incomplete from the stone circles and one virtually complete dome erupting from the earth mound that surrounded the entire structure. The only gap in the outermost ring was where the 'slaughter stone' was laying on the ground.

Looking around the members of the outer ring could see that all the domes, while not actually complete, did form a partial dome with flickering areas where the stones were missing. Sustained attacks would be able to penetrate these gaps, it was also evident that the large sarsen shield rings appeared a lot stronger than the blue stone rings with the mound shield appearing somewhere in between.

Everyone's attention was refocused by a hissing sound emanating from the centre of the ring. Adam's body had begun convulsing, his muscles stretching and straining, as if something were trying to pull itself out of his body.

The straining continued until a first blue wisp began to emanate from his chest and gathered itself in a swirling ball above him, gathered around it was a shadow, like black ink flowing over its surface covering it so that only the briefest glances of the blue were visible through the shifting shadow. This was shortly followed by another surrounded by the black ink; this sphere seemed to be a different texture under the ink, it was purple in colour and emanated from his head rather than his chest. Then came a third, again from his chest, this time gold in colour but with a weaker flickering shell of white covering it so that the gold could only be seen when the white shell got thin, what was also evident was that this piece was not like the others as it was vibrating heavily and as soon as it had gathered itself into a ball tried to force its way through the air towards the first blue sphere. As the apparent paths between these two parts seemed mostly blocked only small wisps of the gold managed to break out through the white shell and attempted to get passed the black coating surrounding the blue sphere.

As the gold wisps touched the shell the silver and blue spheres each flickered, changing shape briefly into incomplete forms like part of them were missing, though the sharp eyed would have spotted that the two incomplete forms would have come together to form one complete whole, like a ying and a yang.

"The purple sphere is Adam's mind and intelligence; the blue is Adam's soul and the gold the part of him that loves Sara." explained Charles. Those that knew of his bond with her understood that this was actually her half of the soul held at bay by Adam's magic. "Two more spheres will emerge shortly, one black and one mostly, they will be the curse and Adam's magic respectively."

A few moments later the two spheres in question began to rise out of Adam's chest. The black was slightly smaller than the former three and the white was larger. As they came to rest in the air another series of connections was established between the spheres.

Having the most wizened mind of those mortal present, Dumbledore was roughly able to deduce what each of the connections meant. The first connections was the white ink of Adam's magic (which was now being fed gently by the white sphere) around the gold sphere of Sara's soul half, this was obviously how Adam was keeping her soul half away from his own. Second was the attempted movement and connections of Sara's gold sphere towards Adam's blue soul half, this was probably the most obvious to the observer; her half of the soul trying to reunite with his. Thirdly was the faint connections which were feeding both ways between the covered purple and blue spheres, presumably this was Adam's mind and soul working and the fact that the black ink surrounding them was allowing this connection was suggested that the thoughts being transferred were not good once. Lastly there was the multiple connections of the black sphere, the curse. It was feeding the shadow of ink over both Adam's mind and soul but was also noticeably connected to the white sphere of his magic, a closer examination of the connection revealed that instead of feeding the magic the connection reached the sphere and appeared to be pulling the power away from the white sphere to feed its power over the others.

"The curse is using Adam's only magic to fuel its efforts," explained Charles, confirming Dumbledore's hypothesis. "It's grown larger than I thought we must do this quickly before it..."

He was cut off as the black ink shields around the parts of Adam, sharpened into sharp points piercing into his mind and soul.

"Its defending itself, we need to separate it off now, begin the chant."

As the group began the shielding around them intensified and a beam of wispy light like those between the spheres descended through the centres of the five domes and came to rest upon Charles, Adam and his constituent part spheres.

The black magic sphere and its tendrils convulsed and began to distort and twitch like a squid or an octopus's limb which has touched something that has shocked it. It withdrew its tendrils and the shielding around the other spheres collapsed though the drain on Adam's magic sphere intensified.

"It's drawing more power from him to keep itself here," explained Charles, his voice slightly strained as he magically wrestled with the dark magic. "Two can play at that game."

Charles changed the movements of his hands one of which directed a silver wispy light from within himself to reach out and connect with Adam's magical sphere. Nothing happened for a moment before the entire sphere seemed to roll in on itself before launching outwards at the black sphere, instantly causing the connection between them to fracture and dissolve.

"Got it," grinned Charles satisfied, before jerking his hands aware from the spheres. The black sphere lurched sideways away from Adam's body while the rest descended back from whence they came.

The sphere, now on its own began to expand and reshape itself forming a humanoid shape that looked like a man covered in wet tar and oil. It looked around before setting its eyes on Tara, it went to reach for her when Adam's sword passed through it entering at the shoulder and exiting just above where its hip would have been. It screamed in pain before dissolving like smoke on the wind.

There were a few moments pause where no one said anything before people thought it safe to breathe again and relaxed.

Sheaving Adam's sword Charles returned it to its position beside the now curse free Guardian.

"That's the first part over," acknowledged Charles, moving to sit down between Tara and Hermione who shifted around to allow him to sit directly behind Adam's head. "He is now curse free, now to pull Adam out of himself. Those in the outer ring please space yourselves evenly around the whole circle and sit down, as soon as Hermione and Tara are inside Adam's mind you will be able to move. Can all those who have wands please lay them in front of them facing the centre if you are in the outer ring or Adam's head if you are in the inner ring."

"Before we begin I will explain briefly what is going to happen, when I begin the ritual I want you all to focus on your particular magical form, for those of you have mixed blood if you just focus on your magic as usual as if you were about to cast a spell as that will be enough to allow the rite to access your magic, for those of you who can change your features or form please start changing as soon as the right begins, if like in your case Professor McGonagall the transformation would mean you would no longer be able to maintain the circle only transform part way."

"Understood."

"As soon as the rite has begun everyone in the inner ring will be unable to move, if any of the links are broken then it means that when Tara and Hermione try to leave Adam's mind they will die. They will have no way of knowing what is going on outside his mind, this means that the outer ring who will be able to move as soon as the rite begins will have to defend us, the henge itself would have been able to defend us completely but as less than half the stones are still here the protection it provides will be limited, understood?"

There were mummers of confirmation from around the two circles, upon hearing the confirmation he turned to Hermione and Tara.

"While you are inside his mind you will very likely see an Adam quite unlike the Adam you know, that man is exceptionally good at containing his emotions, you will probably also see images from his past, memories, I predict that he now has less than a day to live but time will move faster inside his mind, you cannot be harmed inside his mind as long as he wants you safe so I will tell you to be careful what you say, you may find some help inside his mind but I cannot quarantine even that. Ready?"

"Yes."

"Yes."

"Everyone close your eyes and concentrate."

Everyone focused their magic's on the centre of the ring.

"Thoth, ainu nad goll a pron dol, ammen thir minna an pron dol ned pron Tirno Calaquendi, bronia ammen band pendrath"

The domes which had got weaker after the completion of the exorcism powered up again, inside the inner ring magic erupted from the chests of the group, passing through their wands (and umbrellas if they had them) all aiming at Adam's head, looking around the ring a very strange sight greeted the eyes of anyone watching, out of the group one now had a fur covering her head and a tail, another had a rapidly enlarging nose and hair that was fluctuating between short bubblegum pink and long chestnut and probably most strange a pair of feathered wings extending out the back of the Fleur and antlers out of the head of Harry.

After about five seconds the heads of those in the inner ring fell forward and a beam of light past from Hermione and Tara into Charles and down his arms to Adam.

And thus the Bearers entered the mind of the Guardian.

* * *

_Dimension: 1375 – Earth_

_Date: 3__rd__ December 2001 AD_

_Country: Britain – England_

_Location: Salisbury Plain - Stonehenge - The Guardian's Mind_

_Time: Unknown_

All Tara could see was dazzling light for at least twenty seconds after she had felt herself being pulled out of her body, it felt like she was in a swirling vortex of light, then with an incredible feeling that she compared to negative g-force she was flung to a stop.

She landed on what felt like stone, from the similar sounds next to her she guessed that Hermione was there with her.

As her eyes recovered from the blinding light, she saw that she was kneeling on grey stone paving. Looking up slightly she could see more of the stone heading away in all directions, looking left she could see the stone meeting a wall then continuing up, turning around she saw the wall reach the ceiling also made out of the same stone.

"Very monochromatic isn't it," remarked Hermione, who had just rolled herself onto her feet. "Not very origin- What on earth?"

As she stood up Tara looked at Hermione, following her line of site she realised the reason for her exclamation. Looking forward on the other side of the cavern that they appeared to be in, through an archway which was at ninety degrees to the correct angle was a tree growing out of the wall on their left and extending towards the wall on their right, like someone had dug up a tree and replanted it sideways, this idea was scotched half a second later when a blossom from the tree fell and floated from right to left through the air towards the roots of the tree.

Looking around further they could see that they were on a small platform which had a flight of stairs leading down from it before disappearing through an arch that this time was the right way up, but all around them there were more stairways, arches, doorways, platforms and a few object like a table and chair which were on what to them was a ceiling on the other side of the cavern which were either one or two planes out of sync with them.

"Have we fallen into an Escher canvas?" asked Hermione.

"It certainly does look like his drawing 'relativity'," Tara agreed. "Either that or the film Labyrinth."

"Should we be on the look out for David Bowe?" Hermione joked. "Would you like to guess which way we should go?"

"I think our main problems going to be not falling off," she replied, walking towards the nearest set of stairs and starting to descend.

She heard Hermione start to follow her.

"Wait here for a moment; let me see where this passage leads."

Continuing down the steps she turned and headed through the arch at the bottom of the flight.

"This is seriously strange," Hermione thought aloud. "Even for us."

"I can't disagree with that," replied Tara

Looking to the source of the voice revealed Tara, standing on the underside of a floor of another platform about ten meters along and fifteen meters up the opposing wall of the cavern.

"This is going to get very confusing," sighed Hermione as she descended the steps following Tara's route, exiting through the arch that Tara had passed through. As she walked out onto the platform she realised that Tara wasn't there.

"Tara?"

"Down here," came the reply.

Leaning over the edge of the platform she saw Tara doing the same thing from the other side, they were standing on the same platform but on opposite sides of it.

"Not good," she sighed.

"No," agreed Tara. "Did you follow my route?"

"Down the stairs and through the arch, yes."

"That means the arches and staircases are moving."

"Let me try coming to you," suggested Hermione, walking up the set of stairs on her left, the opposing side of which Tara could have walked down.

Passing through another arch she found herself looking at Tara from one of the walls at the opposite end of the cavern, turning right and through another arch she found herself on the ceiling of the surface they had started on.

She tried walking through another half dozen archways before sighing as she realised she was back on the opposing side of the platform that Tara was on.

"This is ridiculous," she sighed. "It makes no logical sense."

"Did you think it would be easy?" asked Tara.

"No, but I expect it to be at least logical," she replied. "Ok, I have an idea. I'm going to climb down onto your side of the platform."

"Do you think that's a good idea?"

"No, but it's the only idea I've got left," she replied kneeling down. "In theory I should be able to drop part of the way before you pull me over to your side.

"Take my hand," instructed Tara, extending it around the edge of her side as she tried to grip the ground with her other. "That way I've already got hold of you."

Hermione moved to the edge.

"Ok, ready?"

"Ready."

Hermione heaved herself forward around the edge, for a brief second gravity helped her before it changed direction, but not in the way she hoped as it picked her off of the edge and tried to carry her across the cavern.

Tara not expecting Hermione to be pulled sideways was caught off guard and pulled off of her side of the platform sending both towards the wall on the other side of the cavern.

Both cried out before an arm extended out and caught Tara's free arm, stopping both women dead, hanging sideways across the cavern.

Looking up Tara saw a very welcoming sight.

"Adam!"

"Hey Tara," he smiled back. He was standing on the side edge of the platform that they had just fallen off of so he was experiencing an opposing gravity field to them.

Pulling them towards him Tara felt gravity shift directions as she unsteadily dropped down onto the edge foot wide edge, before helping Hermione down between them.

"You can't cross three gravity planes at once," he explained. "Two is ok, but not three."

Before they could ask any questions he stepped off the side of the platform in such a way that he moved in an arch so that he ended up standing on the side of the platform Tara had original be on.

"How did you do that?" asked Hermione.

"Stand backwards with most of your foot off the edge and then fall backwards as if you were falling backwards onto a bed."

After a moments through both tried as he recommended.

"On three?" asked Hermione.

"Three," she agreed. "One...two..."

As the pair dropped backwards they again experienced the gravity shifting before ending up on the edge of the platform that was the right way up with their toes hanging off the front.

"That's very uncomfortable," shuddered Hermione as she stabilized herself.

"Next time I would not try to cheat gravity," replied Adam.

As if snapping back to themselves both of the women ran at him and hugged him tight.

"Thank Merlin you're ok," sighed Hermione as they separated from him.

"I am, but then again _I_ was never in trouble."

It was that something occurred to Tara, he did not look the same as he usually did, there was not the usual air of authority and confidence around him, also he was wearing a simple pair of black jeans, a black t-shirt and a pair of black trainers, he had smiled a real smile, and not just that half smile that he usually used.

"You said 'hey'. You never say 'hey'?" she questioned.

"I do," he corrected. "But Adam does not."

"Who are you if you are not Adam?" asked Hermione defensively.

"Oh, I am Adam, just not the Adam you know," he replied.

"What do you mean?" Tara asked.

"I am the Adam that was mortal, the Adam that existed before the Guardian, before I got magic and power. In case you have not realised personnel pronouns are pretty useless in here."

"So what are you then?"

"I am...an echo of what came before. Using computers as an analogy I would be a copy of the original operating system. The gods wanted to create a warrior, I was the template."

"So are you part of the Adam we know?" Tara continued.

"He is the computer after it has been running for a while, more programs have been installed, it's been personalised and upgraded etc. Think of my like a CD copy of what the Gods started with. I am the Adam that died when my world was destroyed and that was convinced by the Gods to become their champion. From the point where they gave me power, I and the Adam you know were separate, he became the Guardian and I remained as I was."

"That's not very fair?" Hermione commented.

"It was our decision; we wondered what it would be like after being the Guardian for millions of years and split ourselves in to two identical copies so that we would always have a point of reference to compare to ourselves to."

"This conversation is giving me a headache," groaned Hermione.

"I'm not surprised," he smiled. "The best way to think about me is as someone who while Adam is experiencing all the things he experiences is watching them all on TV, but they are not my memories."

He turned away from them and walked through an arch, before he had fully turned out of sight they sped after him so as not to get separated.

"Who was it that let you in by the way?" he asked as he led them through the labyrinth that was the cavern.

"Charles," Tara replied.

"Thought as much," he nodded, changing direction and walked up the wall. With some awkwardness they managed to work out how to follow him.

"Where are you leading us?" she continued.

"Through Adam's minds passive defences at the moment. If you want to talk to him you can hardly do it through these walls can you," he replied.

As they walked they became aware of a low rumbling noise, similar to stones grinding together. Passing through another archway which was twice as tall as all the other archways they found themselves in another cavern, this time of yellow stone, it contained more staircases spanning the gap between the walls, though they were again at various angles but the biggest difference in this cavern were the strange creatures moving up and down the staircases.

"We are definitely in an Escher painting," gasped Hermione.

The creatures were about two meters long, the best comparison to a modern animal would be somewhere between a snake and a centipede, they had large heads which looked like a wide short cylinder with the flats being the sides of its head, out of which two bulged, half sphere eyes extended on small stalks, the neck flowed up into the head, joining the head without an obvious connecting point. The body was fairly centipede like except it only had six legs and that the entire thing was made of what appeared to be the same stone covering the walls; the head was one large piece while the body was made up of plates of stone moving on top of each other with the clawed legs extending out of it.

They watched them walk by in long seemingly endless winding, rising and descending columns (which they realised may have just been one long column heading through every door before rejoining itself), as they watched the creatures descended the nearest staircase as each reached the bottom they rolled over their heads so that their body curled around it so that they took on the appearance of a wheel with two eyes sticking out the sides and without breaking stride the wheels rolled smoothly to the next staircase, unwound and began to descend.

"What are they?" asked Hermione.

No sooner had she said it than did half the creatures that they could see stopped, looked at them and moved to surround them, climbing up the walls, the ceiling and any other surface to encircle them.

As they reached them a large percentage of the creatures underwent a change, they're eyes and eye stalks seemed to retract into their heads before being replaced by various other types of extremity, some looked like cones, others like balls, more just like the eyes in varying colours.

The creatures waved them about them for a few moments before seeming to come to a conclusion, returning to their original shape and scuttled back to resume what they were doing before.

"What just happened?" asked Hermione.

"We were scanned," Adam replied, beginning to lead them through the hall, as he stepped in their way the creatures changed course and rejoined the line via other routes so that the lines were not broken. "They are the second level of defence for our mind, all those varying extremities were scanning different things; smell, hearing, magic and half a dozen other things that I will not even try to explain, luckily you were granted access so we can continue. We can bypass the next three or four levels of protection so we won't have to deal with them."

"How long before we can see Adam?" asked Tara.

"Not long," he replied turning and heading straight for a wall, but instead of walking up it he passed through it.

Both Hermione and Tara paused for a moment before following him gingerly after testing the walls lack of solidity.

Passing through they found themselves standing in the middle of a very large hall. It appeared to be triangular and extremely high. Along each of the three walls was a door but each was very different from the other.

The first door was over ten metres high, it was made of white stone with intricately carved figures and images carved into it representing angels and animals and many other things they did not recognise, but it did not look pristine. The stone was chipped and worn; it had faded and grown dirty like a statue left to suffer the elements for an extended period of time. It looked like something that was made to stand proud and be imposing but had been badly weathered over the extended period of time that it had been out in the open, despite the fact that there was no wind or rain here. This door was closed but at the base of the door, carved through the stone work was a normal size door which was slightly ajar.

The second door was equally grand except that it was black, the stone was not stained because it was so black that you would not have been able to see any form of dirt, it too was intricately carved but this time it was covered with demons and creatures of darkness. Everything the previous door created in grandness and awe this door created in fear, menace and evil. This door too was closed but from within could be heard a rumbling, it sounded like a pitched down tigers growl mixed in with the sound of a large dragons breathing. In front of this door were massive metal bolts holding the door shut, preventing it from moving more than a few inches. Again at this doors base was a smaller door, again blocked by bolts preventing its opening more than a few centimetres, one of the bolts was slightly bent allowing the smaller door to open a crack allowing small wisps of black magic to flow out. Looking up they could see a massive sphere of white light around which the wisp of magic was swirling, it was joined there by another flowing from the third door.

This door was tiny compared to the others, it was of normal human size and made of wood with no special adornment at all, unlike the others this doors was open wide though they could not see what was beyond it as it was concealed by a blue stream of magic which flowed heavily from it and swirled around the sphere above their heads.

From what they could see the blue magic around the sphere was in control but only just as the little wisp from the smaller black door was almost as much as all of the magic from the wooden door. The other strange thing about the room were the walls which were not a fixed colour, the colours were fluctuating like mist, around the black door the walls were black, around the wooden door the walls were blue but the white door also seemed to be

surrounded by blue magic.

"What is this?" asked Tara.

"This is the centre of our mind; each door represents a separate part of us. The white door is the Adam you know, the black door is the home of what we call 'the Beast' and the wooden door is mine. Before you ask what is happening I will tell you. The Beast is a part of Adam that took over a long time ago."

On queue the door rattled and a roar emanated from behind it, at the same time the wisp of black magic got stronger and the walls of black pulsed out would.

Adam turned to the door and gestured at it, on command a stream of blue magic emanated from his small wooden door and shot at the black door. As this happened the black wisp recoiled back from the contact before returning to its previous state.

"While Adam is trapped inside himself," panted the Adam beside them, the magic he had just performed obviously having taken a lot out of him. "The Beast is trying to take over, that white sphere is Adam's magic, when Adam collapsed into this state I was luckily aware enough to seize control before the Beast could, the black and blue magic's are ours battling it out, it's taking a lot out of me as I have never had the power he has and its only because he is restrained that I stand a chance, time is shorter than I thought."

He paused and moved over to the white door, still breathing heavily.

"You need to go in there and get Adam to retake control before I am overpowered, if that happens the Beast will destroy us and take control of the body and that must not happen."

Wrenching the smaller door open allowing light to escape he directed them inside.

"Go."

"Wait," began Hermione, "How..."

"Go!"

* * *

TRANSLATION:

Thoth, ainu nad goll a pron dol, ammen thir minna an pron dol ned pron Tirno Calaquendi, bronia ammen band pendrath

[Thoth, god of wisdom and the mind, we seek admittance to the mind of the Guardian of The Light, grant us safe passage]

AUTHORS NOTE: REALLY REALLY REALLY sorry about the long wait guys, had an extremely busy few months; courses at work, new contracts increasing my work load, 2 car crashes (not my fault) and write offs, computer rebuilds, my other story to write and 2 other close friends stories to beta for them. So very hectic, hope its worth the wait.


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